God's Got This

 

The election is coming up. There is a lot of consternation about mail-in voting, in-person voting in a pandemic, the outcome of the election, and more. About half of the citizens are convinced that absolute anarchy will rule if the Democratic candidates are voted in as president and vice-president, and about half the citizens are convinced that absolute anarchy will rule if the Republican candidates are voted in. There is a lot of hate, anxiety, and accusation being thrown around on social media and in person.

Christian, let me remind you: God's Got This! Yes, even THIS. He is sovereign, and however our political future is shaped, He is in charge. Remember that He allowed the Babylonians to destroy Jerusalem and carry away His people! And then He redeemed them. He knows the outcome of every single thing we worry about. 

I'm not saying that we shouldn't care about what's happening in our country. The Bible tells us to be involved in the world (but not of the world). We should care and work for our beliefs and values. But we shouldn't fear what is to come! 

We can rest assured that God in in control and the outcome will be His. No matter how things turn out on Election Day. As a recent meme stated, "Don't let the elephants and the donkeys make you forget that you're a child of the lamb!" 

Knowing that God is sovereign and that whatever the outcome of the election, His will is done makes it possible for us to respond with love and concern to those whose ideas differ from ours. I know there are some citizens out there who choose not to engage with people with specific beliefs; I respect that, but it doesn't mean that we can't have basic human decency toward those people. Calling others hateful names, damaging their property or bodies, these are things that are against what the Bible expresses. We can disengage with others without being hateful. 

God's Got This. However the election turns out, God is in control and we can trust Him to take the outcome and somehow make it His. 

What I Have Gained...

 A comment from an atheist friend really struck me; they referred to a "pretend god" and "wishful thinking" as they mentioned faith. I didn't confront them about their thoughts (we've had that conversation before), but it really got me thinking. I remember being asked by a non-Christian friend a long time ago, "Don't you see what you're missing?" They meant that my faith was keeping me from having "good" things. At the time, I strongly considered they were right. In fact, that was the beginning of my walk away from God for a couple of decades. Thankfully, God is the one who holds us together, not me. He kept his hold on me through those lost years and pulled me back to Himself over time.

What am I losing by having faith? That's what those unbelieving friends are focused on. I was losing out on having fun, on rational thought, on reality! The trap of "missing out" has led many young Christians astray, like it did me. 

Today, when I think about what I'm losing through my faith, different things come to mind. Through faith, I have lost fear, anxiety, aimlessness, anger, unforgiveness, and so much more. I remember when I first started back to church, I felt like an imposter, but God kept urging me to come back. I have gained so very much because I listened to God's call.

Far more important than I have "lost" through my faith in Jesus Christ, is what I have gained. I think the list of fruits of the spirit in Galatians 5:22 is an incredible list of what Christians gain through faith! Indeed, I have gained love beyond all measure. From my husband, from the family that God has created for us, from fellow Christians here in Dulce and elsewhere. 

My joy surpasses all understanding. In the midst of terrible circumstances, I have maintained my Christian joy. Even when I am struggling against the depression which has followed me for most of my life, I feel joy! It's deep and free-flowing in my spirit. 

And peace. There is such peace in my life these days...perhaps I feel it greatly because my life prior to returning to faith was so very anxiety-ridden. God's peace fills my heart and mind; I rarely experience any anxiety or fear anymore. Peace is precious.

I am in great need of patience, kindness, gentleness, and self-control as I raise children in my late 50s. I am a much better parent than I was in my 20s and 30s. I attribute my ability to keep my cool to God's work in my heart. Each day as school begins, I pray for patience, kindness, gentleness, self-control, and wisdom. These gifts from God have been consistently mine as I homeschool.

I thank God for the faith he has given me. When I wander, He pulls me back. When I feel weak in my faith, He claims me. I am blessed beyond measure.

I have "lost" nothing through faith. I have gained much! I pray that as you consider your situation in life, you see much gained by faith as well. If you do not have faith, or if you don't see the gain from faith, pray that God would open your eyes and heart to His reality. It is amazing!

Six Months...Why We are Still Staying Home:

Our family formally started self-quarantining due to COVID-19 on March 10, six months ago today. I wrote about our reasons for self-quarantining the next day. In that post, I estimated that we would be self-quarantining for a couple of weeks and then reassessing. We have reassessed continually for the past six months and each time, we agree that we should continue to stay at home except for essential outings.

Six months in, and I want to address two questions:

     1. How are we doing??

     2. Why are we still self-quarantining??

 Our family is doing great! We have entertained ourselves quite successfully through the pandemic. In June, when our town celebration usually happens, we held our own mini-carnival, complete with homemade funnel cakes and snow cones. In July, we celebrated the Fourth with a backyard waterslide, a shaving cream war, and paint fireworks (there being a ban on all fires and fireworks due to fire danger).

We have learned bike tricks on the driveway, taken several socially-distanced kayak trips, and gone hiking. We have gotten confident in taking the children to a state park just off the reservation where we can kayak and hike without encountering anyone close-up. The kids have gotten good at wearing their masks around their necks or attached to their hats so they can flip them on in a second or two.
 Our backyard ninja line has gotten lots of use, as have our swings and zip line. We really have used this quieter time to spend quality time with our family.





So why are we still self-quarantining? 

Because, really, nothing has changed since March. We are still facing a virus for which almost no one has immunity. The CDC estimates that ten times as many people have had COVID19 as the official positive count. So, as we are officially just over 6,000,000 positive cases, probably 60,000,000 people in the US have had coronavirus. That still leaves approximately 268,000,000 vulnerable people. Yes, really.

We've had about 190,000 deaths from COVID19 in the US. That's about a 0.3% death rate if we use the total estimated case count (60,000,000). Hopefully, as we learn more about how to treat this disease, the death rate will drop. Even so, I don't want to be among the statistics, nor do I want my family among them.

So, we are self-quarantining to protect the hospital systems that serve our area. We are self-quarantining to avoid being a transmission route to our family and our community. We are self-quarantining to be part of the solution.

We are, however, expanding our horizons a bit as time goes on. The hiking and kayaking mentioned above are things we didn't do in the early spring. We have taken the kids to the zoo (COVID-safe practices in place) recently. We even picked up fast food yesterday for the first time! We are simply adding safety measures to these activities: mask-wearing, hand-sanitizing, etc.

We aren't, though, traveling to see our extended families at this time. We miss them and love them a lot! But we don't want to bring this disease to our 80+ year old parents, nor do we want to contract it from our less-quarantined grandchildren. So for now, we are mostly staying home. And we don't regret it a bit!

Predictable, Perfunctory, or Profound?

The Christian life is a journey. We are not in the same place as our friends, family, or Christian brothers and sisters. But we are all on the journey, and we can all  benefit from asking this question of our Christian habits, our Christian practices, our Christian motion: Is this predictable, perfunctory, or profound?

It's really easy to let prayer, church, Bible-reading, and other Christian habits turn into superficial practices. I am reading the Bible online with a Bible-reading plan that is supposed to keep me on track. I like the Bible-reading plan on the YouVersion Bible app, and I've been reading the plan for two and a half years. I will be done reading the entire Bible by the beginning of 2021.

Sounds good, right?

Except....

I realized a couple of weeks ago that I was speeding through the Bible reading to get done. My goal was to finish for the day. I wanted to check it off my list. My reading of God's Word, the Word of God Himself, had turned into a perfunctory task to complete before my day began. Not the way to treat God's Holy Word.

Prayer is another of my daily Christian practices. I pray with my kids. I pray with my whole family. I pray with my husband. I pray by myself. We've been trying to encourage our kids to think about what they are praying. Not to simply repeat their typical, "Thank-you-God-for-the-food. Hope-we-have-a-wonderful-day." It's easy to let our prayers become predictable, repetitive, and thought-less. Not the way to talk to our Holy God, our Lord and Savior.


Church in the time of a pandemic is an interesting proposition. It isn't very predictable, is it? My husband purposefully keeps his preaching from being perfunctory, but as a listener, it is easy to let the words go into one ear and out the other. The same thing is true of Christian music, it's easy to let the music play away without listening to the depth of the words. Without engaging. Without processing.

I've been mulling my own Christian practices and habits lately (obviously). I've tried a few different things to wake myself up to the words of the songs, the sermons, and the Word. Sometimes, my techniques helped...sometimes they didn't. I found one thing that did make a difference, though.

Every.

Single.

Time.

That was prayer, asking God to make this experience profound. I just ask God to take my prayer time and make it meaningful. I pray that the online church service will change me to be more like Jesus. I pray that my reading of the Bible would affect my heart, my life. I lift up my desire for this experience to be more than predictable and perfunctory! I ask God to use my time to bring me profound change.

Try it. It's amazing.

Where is God in This Pandemic??!

 When bad things happen, and there have sure been a lot of them lately, it is natural for people to wonder, "And just where was God when such-and-such happened?!" This question is usually uttered with indignation, because after all, if God were around, He certainly wouldn't have allowed this!

But God does allow bad things. Clearly, many times in the Bible, God allows trouble to come to His people. In John 16:33, Jesus says, "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world!" It can't get much clearer than that: Trouble comes to God's people.

The Bible addresses the world's troubles frequently in the Psalms and elsewhere. For example, Psalm 10:1 asks, "Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?" But at the end of the same Psalm (verses 17-18) the Psalmist ends with, "You, Lord, hear the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry, defending the fatherless and the oppressed..."

So, if God is here during this pandemic, why can't we see Him? There is so much hate and anger and name-calling, etc. Where is God??!!


Where. Is. God.


He is in the hands and feet of those who are helping.


God is in the congregation of Connections Church in the Denver, CO, area. The people there gathered VBS materials for us and shipped them to us. They provided snacks, lessons, crafts, and more to the children and youth here in Dulce last month. More than 60 kids here received a VBS-to-go bag of materials  to use during our recent Stay-at-Home orders from the tribe. Our own children and teen participated and found the activities very meaningful and fun.


God is in the hearts and minds of those people here on the reservation who have donated and packed and delivered food and cleaning supplies to the Jicarilla elders and others in need. There have literally been tribal members who have volunteered hours of time to receive, organize and deliver needed supplies. There have also been donations from the state of New Mexico and others off the reservation to provide for the Jicarilla people during our lockdown. God's provision for us all has been astonishing!


God has also generously provided many masks for our family to give to our community. He has moved individuals and entire congregations to make masks for donation to the Jicarilla Apache people. We are even receiving some individually wrapped disposable masks to put into the boxes for elders and others, as well as for visitors to our home who prefer disposable masks. We continue to provide food for anyone who asks at our door. Being able to give masks to these folks adds a measure of safety for us and them.

No matter where we look, there are people helping and serving in the name of Jesus. That's where God is in this pandemic. Right there. Look around to see the work that Jesus is inspiring and directing. And if you don't see anybody helping and serving, look for a way you could help or serve.

Be the hands and feet of Jesus in this world of pandemic.

Loneliness in a Pandemic

With three kids in the house, I rarely feel lonely. Their antics keep me involved in many activities each day, and I love it! We've been home with very few exceptions since March 10, 2020. 144 days with almost zero alone-time...I haven't felt lonely much.

But I've been noticing in my newsfeed on Facebook that a lot of people are feeling lonely. And I have to admit that I've been craving some friend-time that I'm missing.

Whether you're alone at home or in a crowded household, loneliness can creep in. Or a craving for a specific type of connection. I love my kids! And I am really missing my friends and family. We're all getting weary of the caution with which we are living right now.

The other day, I found myself giving our teenager some advice I received from my mom many years ago: If you need a friend, look for someone who needs a friend.

I think the same advice goes for loneliness in a pandemic: If you feel lonely, look for someone else who needs connection. 

Jesus tells us to love our neighbors, so look for "the least of these." Think of the widows you know. Those alone in their homes. Those afraid of the coronavirus. Those single adults who are raising children in a pandemic alone. Those ill with COVID-19. Look around and find those who are in need of connection.

Then connect. Call them. Write a letter. Make an art project and send it to them. Send them some popcorn or a puzzle made from a picture of you together. Connect.

And connect with Jesus. The Bible says "God is with us" at least sixteen times (depending on translation, and I don't claim to have found each example)!  “God is with you in everything you do."  Genesis 21:22b  "The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress." Psalm 46:7

There is never a time when God is not with us! Even if all your human connections are absent for the moment, there is always God. He is our strength and refuge. He is a very present help in times of trouble. He will never fail us!

So if you're feeling lonely, reach out to the Rock of our Salvation! Reach out to your loved ones! Reach out to your neighbors! You will conquer the loneliness of a pandemic for many if you do.

Spinning

Everywhere I look these days, it seems like things are spinning out of control. Coronavirus. Masks/No Masks. Racial Justice. So many people are so loud. So convinced that they alone are right. So determined to force the opinions to which they so strongly adhere.

I've been spinning a lot lately, too. Literally. For whatever reason, mild vertigo has become my companion. I hate it. I hate standing up to a world that is spinning, in which I have no balance! My balance has been affected greatly, and it's awful.

My walk this morning was cut short due to the spinning of my world. I despise not being able to keep my body in good working shape. A decade ago, I swam a couple miles, rode my bike several miles, and walked a couple of miles every day. My body felt strong and competent. Not anymore.

In all of this spinning, all of these things outside my control, I know I am not alone. I know others have worse physical conditions. I know others are puzzling their way through our chaotic world. I know that reality is spinning in so many unexpected ways. It's getting us all off-balance.

So what do we do? How do we manage these chaotic out-of-control events. How do we stay balanced in an ever-spinning world? Are we to simply fall down?

Well, this morning when I stood up too fast for my vertigo, I started to fall. Then I reached out to find something stable, something still. I found a coffee table with my hands and quickly sat down on it. I simply sat there until the chaos in my vestibular system settled down and I wasn't dizzy anymore.

So, Christian, what should you do to regain your balance? When the world is whirling uncontrollably with COVID, opinions, violence, or fear, what can you do?

Hold fast to your foundation. Reach out to your faith: pray, read your Bible, listen to Christian music, talk with your pastor or a trusted Christian sister. When you reach for something stable, you can rest in it for long enough to regain your balance. After you rest, the chaos will be more manageable.

This world is spinning at an incredible rate, with much confusing noise. Regain your balance. Stop. Slow. Reach for trusted faith resources. Rest.

Rest.

Amen.