Kid of the Week

³⁵Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. "Teacher," they said, "we want you to do for us whatever we ask."

 ³⁶"What do you want me to do for you?" he asked.

 ³⁷They replied, "Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory." –Mark 10:35-37

When my boys were little they were like all siblings... they would fight--about just about everything.  They would fight about who got to sit in the front seat, who got to pick the TV show, who got the bigger piece of... well... anything.  If you are a parent of more than one child, you know exactly what I'm talking about!

It drove me absolutely crazy that they would fuss about such unimportant things!  I tried everything... even removing the argument, such as not letting them watch TV at all if they couldn’t decide on a program peacefully or making them both sit in the back seat, but that only made matters worse.  They would fight about whose fault it was! 

I finally came up with the perfect solution that worked wonders for years and years to come.  I instituted the “Kid of the Week” program at the House of Hayes.  The boys would rotate weeks at being “kid of the week” and would get all the perks available that week.  He got to sit in the front seat ALL week… he got to pick the TV programs ALL week… he got to choose first, go first, and be first at everything.  Only Richard or I could overrule as long as we had a good reason.    And it worked beautifully. At first it was tough for the other kid to humble themselves, but they knew if they wanted good treatment the next week, they had to.

Don’t we all want to be “kid of the week” ALL the time in our Father’s kingdom?  We always want special treatment.  We want our prayers answered even at the expense of another.  We want to make sure our own rights are not violated even if it means trampling all over someone else’s rights in the process.  We want prosperity to rain down on us even when we see our neighbor doing without basic necessities.   We want to be honored, respected and loved even when we don’t honor respect and love others.

What we really ought to be doing is treating everyone else like “kid of the week” all the time. Offer someone else the best seat… the biggest portion… the first choice.  It is a wonderful joy to do that… especially if we wanted it for ourselves. 

I will never forget the time early on in our “kid of the week” program when Daniel asked me if just because he was “kid of the week” did he HAVE to sit in the front seat.  I told him, of course not… the point was, he got to choose.  He said, “okay, then I want to let Kevin sit in the front this time!”  That led to occasional bursts of generosity from each of them every week when the kid of the week would give the other the honor of the best choice.  They discovered that even though at first it was hard to give up what they wanted, they received even more joy by doing it when they didn’t have to.

What a great lesson for us all to learn!

Father,
We know that in your heart each one of us is ALWAYS “kid of the week” but you take special joy in watching us serve others first, because you know we are learning important lessons when we do that.  Open our hearts to the generosity that lives in each of us.  Amen.

The Good Stuff

I was searching for devotional material this morning and came across a great website.  There are videos and activities and more... all devoted to helping you see the good side of life.  For Lent, I gave up news on my Facebook newsfeed because I was getting this constant stream of bad stuff happening in my community and in the world, not to mention the often heartless comments under each of the news stories.  In contract, this website is full of good stuff.

For today's devotion, just got to soulpancake.com and have a look around.  Watch a couple of the videos.  Click on the "activities" tab and maybe try one.  If you have a facebook account, "like" them and get a steady stream of good each day.

Enjoy!

www.soulpancake.com

Gracious God,
Help us to find the good in this world, in our communities and in our own lives.  And give us grateful hearts.  Amen.

Life's Wrinkles

 But you, Lord, do not be far from me.
You are my strength; come quickly to help me. (Psalm 22:19 NIV)

I remember my first attempt as a little girl to make my own bed.  No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t do it as neatly as my mother could.  I worked for what seemed to me to be a very long time, trying to get the wrinkles out of the top sheet.  Every time I moved one wrinkle out, more appeared somewhere else.  I got so frustrated I began to cry and went to my mother for help.  I wanted to watch exactly how she did it, so I could get the same results next time.  I knew I could do it on my own… I just needed to know the correct steps.  So I watched as mom flicked the sheet high over my head and let it fall to the bed without a wrinkle.  Now I knew how she did it, but I also knew that I wasn’t physically able to do what she did.  I knew that if I wanted my bed to look perfect, I was going to need my mom’s help.

Without God, our lives are as wrinkled as those bed sheets.  We can take care of ourselves after a fashion, but no matter how hard we try, we can’t get the wrinkles out by ourselves.  Maybe we even know the steps… we’ve seen God work before.  We know what we must do.  But there is just no possible way we can do it by ourselves.  We have to have God’s help.

The question is… how long will it take us to figure it out?  Will we just keep shifting the wrinkles around in our life? Will we fall to the floor in a crumpled heap crying and throwing a tantrum because we can’t get the right results?  Or will we go to our Father and ask for his help?  He’ll give us the results we seek but can’t get on our own.

Father,
We are so prideful.  Help us to realize that we can’t do it all ourselves and that we only have to get your help when we find ourselves overcome with life’s wrinkles.  Amen.

Keeping the Rhythm

"It never occurs to them to say, ‘How can we honor our God with our lives, The God who gives rain in both spring and autumn and maintains the rhythm of the seasons, Who sets aside time each year for harvest and keeps everything running smoothly for us?’" (Jeremiah 5:20-25 MSG)

The older I get the harder these time changes are!  Do I hear an "amen?"  The trouble is, it breaks our rhythm.  There is a rhythm to our daily living... waking, eating, working, giving, sleeping.  Our bodies get accustom to it.  Then comes the time change and our bodies are like... "whoa... you're doing everything at the wrong time!"  We are out of rhythm.

Did you ever learn to play a musical instrument or read music for vocals?  How do you keep rhythm?  You count.  Counting is THE most important thing in keeping the rhythm... especially if you are playing with others.  If one person stops counting, it falls apart.

Ann VosKamp - one of my favorite Christian writers and author of 10,000 Gifts - suggests that we keep our rhythm in life by counting... counting our gifts.  Keep a numbered list of things for which you are grateful.  It will bring rhythm back to your life.  It will help you keep in sync with others.  I will begin by being thankful for the sun shining later in the day that this time change helps bring about!

Gracious God,
Help us keep the rhythm of our lives by remembering to count.  Amen.

Good or Evil

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. (Matthew 25:31-33 NIV)

The choice between good and evil is easy.  I choose good!  See?  Easy!  Unfortunately, temptation doesn't present itself that clearly.  If there was not some perceived good promised, there would be no temptation.  Sometimes the evil is simply disguised as good.

This is a good thing to remember when we are tempted to get on our high horse to judge others.  In the first place, we ourselves have somehow perceived judging another to be good.  But in the second place and even more importantly, we must remember that the person we are judging most likely is acting out of the good he or she found in their own decision... not from the evil that we might see in it.

When we face temptation, it is easy to justify ourselves... like the person who justifies unfaithfulness in marriage by thinking, "God wants me to be happy!"  Or the person who steals from their employer who thinks, "I didn't get a raise this year, so I am only taking what is due to me."  It sounds ridiculous to those of us not tempted that way - we can clearly see the evil in the choices.  But when the temptation comes, it is somehow not so clear.  And our own choices may seem right to ourselves, while others can see how wrong we are.

I believe most people want to make good choices, not evil ones.  I believe most people make more good choices than evil ones.  I am reminded of a movie from several years ago, "Crash."  It showed life as far more complicated than being able to separate people into sheep and goats.  The sheep have so many goat tendencies and the goats have a lot of sheep in them.  "Good" people do bad things and "bad" people do good things.  And most of the time, those we would label as "goats" believe they are sheep.

Any time we use power or possession for anything less than God's purposes we have succombed to temptation and we have seen only the partial good for our own purposes.  It is impossible for we humans to consistantly choose God's purpose.  The best we can do is to try a little harder and not be so hard on our brothers and sisters when they fail.

Holy God,
Help me to be a sheep a little more often than a goat and help me to see the sheep in others.  Amen.

Giving Up Judgment for Lent

“Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. (Luke 6:37 NIV)

So here we are... Lent.  Did you give up something this year?  Chocolate?  Wine?  Sodas?  Fasting is good for the soul, but sometimes I think the things we choose to give up are more about trying to quit bad habits rather than to sacrifice in order to get closer to God.  Quitting bad habits is good. But maybe we should reflect on the purpose of Lent.  Is it about ourselves or about God?

There was an interesting Facebook "share" that went around this past week about "20 Things to Give Up for Lent."  It suggests things like: guilt, fear, worry, shame, etc.  These things are far more designed to bring us into a closer relationship with God, although, I was really surprised at one that wasn't included - judgment.  We judge so quickly these days.  We judge without thinking about what that person's life might be like.  We never know if the rude cashier just found out her mother has breast cancer.  The driver that flipped you off may have just been asked for a divorce.  The beggar in the street may have spent all his money on medical bills for a sick child.

When we give up judging, we automatically take on compassion.  When we are compassionate, we are able to forgive more easily.  It takes practice.  And we must start with these smaller examples like the cashier or driver or beggar above.  Then we can move on to more serious things that hurt us or others.  Compassion and forgiveness does not mean that a person must not face consequences.  But it helps us to love them in spite of their actions and to maybe get involved in helping them through their consequences whatever they may be.

We are all in this life together and we are here to help each other through it.

Compassionate God,
Help us to give up judgment this Lent and forever.  Amen.

Desires of Your Heart

Delight yourself also in the Lord, And He shall give you the desires of your heart. (Psalms 37:4 NKJV)

There are many places in the bible where God promises to give us "the desires of our hearts."  ... if we just follow God, pray in Jesus' name, or "delight yourself in the Lord."  So, then, why are not all Christians rich, healthy and successful in all they do?  Aren't these some of our greatest desires?  Maybe Christians that don't have all they want just are not good Christians... hmmmm... I guess that would make all of us.

The problem is what we believe "desires of your heart" actually means.  For Lent, I am reading a devotional book by Richard Rohr.  In today's reading, he tells us that "desires of your heart" are desires stirred up by the Holy Spirit.  These are not our fleshly desires like the ones we have to win the lottery.  They are God's desires, placed in us, in order that God's will be done on earth.

Unfortunately, most of us are so concerned about receiving the desires of our egos, we have no clue what the desires of our hearts are.  God will reveal them if we really want to know what they are.  But we have to be willing to empty ourselves so that we have room for these desires to grow.  What better time to do that than Lent!  Pray.  Fast.  Return.  Find the desires of your heart and receive them.

Holy God,
Empty us during this season of Lent that we may connect to the true desires of our heart.  Amen.

A News-Free Lent

The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” (John 8:3, 4, 7 NIV)

We have come into an age of instant condemnation.  Go ahead.  Look at your Facebook feed.  Undoubtably there is a news story on there about someone who was arrested for something.  The comments below are horrible.  They are filled with angry people suggesting punishment (most of which would be considered cruel and unusual).  There are at least two things wrong with this.  1- The person was arrested, not tried and convicted.  What ever happened to "innocent until proven guilty?"  And 2 - There are all those stones being cast!  Perhap those commenting should remember the sin in their own lives first.

Imagine being the one dragged in front of the angry mob.  It can happen today.  It wouldnt take much to find your name or face plastered on Facebook being condemned and not being able to share your side of the story.  All those stones being flung.

Now be honest.  Maybe you don't actually comment on these stories, but don't you form an opinion based - not even on the whole story that you have to click on to read - put just the posted few lines that are designed to get your attention?  I know I have done it.

I'm giving up "fast food news" for Lent.  I am taking them all off my news feed.  I'm not sure yet where I will go for the news.  Unfortunately I think it is all junk these days.  My hope is that I will be a more compassionate person come Easter.

Father, 
Remove this spirit of condemnation within me and within so many others that have instant access to incomplete news stories.  Help us to remember that it could be us dragged in front of the people with stones next time.  Amen.

Mouth AND Heart

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer. (Psalm 19:14 NKJV)

Notice that the psalmist says "the words of my mouth AND the meditation of my heart," not "OR." How often do we say the things we know will be pleasing to God, all the while feeling quite the opposite? If you've ever substituted clean words for profanity, you have done it. Yes, most of us know what "shut the front door" REALLY means. The words of the mouth may be pleasing...but not the meditation of the heart.

We are never going to beat this kind of hypocrisy. If we all said what we really thought all the time, no one would ever get along with anyone else! And God is not surprised that our words and thoughts often don't match...and he forgives us over and over and over.

But what does it take to at least grow in this area? It takes drawing closer to God and loving him and loving his commandments. Anyone who knows me, knows I am way more about grace than law. But God's laws are a kind of grace in themselves. They help us to become the people God wants us to be. And when we love his law, our hearts change in such a way that more and more often, the heart matches the words.

We will never be perfect, and we shouldn't beat ourselves up when we fail, but we should take joy in the process of becoming ever more like him as we draw closer through worship, prayer and study.

On this day may the words of my mouth AND the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer. Amen.