spiritual stuff

It doesn’t happen often, but last night I took the time to do some extra cooking after dinner.  My mom gave me some prepared zucchini this weekend and I really needed to get it in some soup so it wouldn’t go to waste.  I also made some black bean and corn salad.  I made it for our small group’s cookout last week and it was gobbled up.  Scott couldn’t wait for me to make more. The recipe is from a lady at our church who is ridiculously talented in hospitality and is notorious for yummy food so I don’t have a link for you.  Maybe I’ll get her to guest post one day to share it.

I had a mess in my kitchen last night.  We were cutting a lot of fresh onions and it had me in tears. After I couldn’t even see to cut a second onion, I got Scott in the kitchen to help cut the next one and then he couldn’t see.  He was getting a wet towel to wipe down his eyes and then he was pulling his shirt over his face trying to cut it that way.  So there we were, both in tears, trying to make some soup. I wish I had that picture to share with you. 

We got all of it made and as I was cleaning up, I saw all the scraps on the counter.  I was touched by its beauty.  Even though they were going to be discarded and they weren’t used for the purposes last night, I couldn’t help but think how beautiful they still were. The floral pattern of the green pepper, the leaves in the celery stalk, the beautiful purple of the red onion.

I couldn’t help but think that there might be some of you that feel like you’ve been handed scraps in life right now.  You’ve got the leftovers.  Maybe you didn’t get a project you wanted at work.  Or, you’re still single and haven’t met the guy you want to marry.  Maybe money is tight and you literally are using people’s leftovers all the time.  You who feel this way, the Lord wants to encourage you. 

If I chose, I can see those scraps as beautiful and useful.

I saw the beauty in those scraps and took a picture and shared on Instagram.  Not only did I enjoy it simply for it just being there, I was able to share it with others and they saw the beauty too.  I know whatever situation you are in, there is beauty there too.  Maybe it’s not the thing you want, but there are good things there too.  Concentrate on that and be grateful.  It does no one any good to complain and grumble.

Now, if I carry those scraps of onion and celery and peppers out to my compost, they will be broken down and sifted into a rich soil.  I’ll use that soil in my garden next year and it will be used to produce a crop.  So maybe they weren’t used in my soup or salad last night, but they will be used to produce food to feed us later on.

And maybe it’s the same in your situation.  Maybe this time is still useful.  Maybe it is being used to break you, to sift you, to prepare you. Maybe it is a time that will be necessary for something in the future.  It doesn’t look like you thought it would and the timing isn’t the way you wished but it could be perfectly orchestrated for your benefit and the benefit of others.

So, be encouraged, friends. 

Sometimes the scraps are pretty spectacular too.

Caramaria

Last year we planted sunflowers from one of those garden kits for kids.  Never did I imagine that they would actually grow.  Neither did I know they are annuals and they would come back. So, we have 4 sunflower plants this year in a sort of random place near our deck. Given another chance, it’s not the location I’d choose.

I’ve been astounded, though, how the tops of the stalks follow the sun during the day.  It’s very odd to see a plant move, as if it had a mind to do so. 

In the morning, the top of the plant is bent at a 45 degree angle towards the east. Our house sits facing north, so the plant is facing the left side of the yard in the morning.  Around noon, you can see that the plant is erect, reaching toward the sun at the top of the sky.  By the evening, the top of the plant is bent over at a 45 degree angle, but facing west, where the sun is setting.

At this point, we’re probably not surprised the name is the sunflower.

I couldn’t help but draw a few spiritual conclusions from this little plant.  I’m not the first to do so.  Indigenous Americans actually used the sunflower as the symbol of their solar deity.  There is something about that little plant who follows the light.

I decided to do some more reading on our littler sunflower.

Beyond any spiritual implications, simply the pattern of the sunflower seeds is astounding.

The disk flowers are arranged spirally. Generally, each floret is oriented toward the next by approximately the golden angle, 137.5°, producing a pattern of interconnecting spirals, where the number of left spirals and the number of right spirals are successive Fibonacci numbers. Typically, there are 34 spirals in one direction and 55 in the other; on a very large sunflower there could be 89 in one direction and 144 in the other.^[2][3][4] This pattern produces the most efficient packing of seeds within the flower head.^[5][6][7]

I mean. Beyond the beauty of the pattern, the seeds are arranged just so so that the most amount of seeds are packed in.  Does that astound you like it does me?

Zoelavie

Let’s not even get into all the uses for the seeds once the growth is complete. 

© Rhphotos

Extracted sunflower oil is used in cooking, as a carrier oil, to produce biodiesel, as a food for both humans and animals.  It can even be used to extract toxins from the soil.

I was disappointed, though, to find out that the following of the sun actually stops once the flower head is formed. 

Once the flower heads are formed, they point in a fixed direction throughout the day, typically eastern.

I truly believe God’s glory is displayed throughout creation.  If I’m drawing spiritual conclusions from this, it didn’t make sense to me. Why, when the flower appeared and it finally matured and was useful would it stop following the sun?  It seems to me that the more mature a plant got, the MORE it should follow the sun.

In an article describing heliotropism (the condition that makes plants turn towards the sun), it says this:

The buds are heliotropic until the end of the bud stage, and finally face east, allowing the flowers of the sunflower to be used as inexact living compasses.^[10]

Oh gosh, are you getting it?

Gfadel

These flowers are stationary towards the East and therefore are LIVING COMPASSES.  They are mature, steady, and literally helping others in their journey.  If a lost traveler comes upon a sunflower field, he can quite literally know what direction to go based on the knowledge that the sunflower points East.

When a plant is still growing and moves to follow the sun, at high noon, you can’t use that plant for direction because it’s pointing straight up at the sky.  It’s no use to anyone.

When the plant is fixed and firm towards the east, lost travelers can use that as a living compass.

I believe it is a picture of a mature Christian.  Once Christians have matured and have developed their skills, talents and abilities-the things they were made for—they naturally help others in their journey.

As Christians, I believe we can always help someone else on their journey, but as one matures, I think she does that more and more.  A maturing Christian learns the talents and gifts the Lord has given them and not only can people enjoy that, they are naturally pointing others toward Christ. 

© Andrew Kazmierski

Have you ever met someone like that?  Where they are mature, steady and strong—they know and you know what their gift is from God and simply seeing it on display draws you closer to God?  It’s the most beautiful thing to watch.

So, while I still love watching our sunflowers bend toward the sun all day, I am looking forward to watching the beautiful flower head firmly point toward the East, knowing that its purpose could lay beyond itself. And pray the same for myself.

*If you want to read more, here are the two WIKI pages I used: Sunflower and Heliotropism

If there’s a thread that has been weaving through all of my readings lately, and therefore what I think God is trying to tell me is this: I have no idea what I’m doing, my thoughts are all messed up and I have no control over anything.  Thanks, God. I get it.  You’re God and I’m not.

Our culture, of which I am a product, is obsessed with self-help.  How to get skinnier, how to have a better marriage, how to succeed at work, how to get along with your kids, how to make better friendships, how to keep your friends.  The list goes on. The magazine titles and self-help book section will confirm.  We want all the steps to all the things to improve our lives.

In the meantime, I’ve seen only one thing have a long-lasting impact in my life: the power of change through Jesus’s healing of my mind, body and soul.

I am a better mother, sister, daughter, worker, servant, person when Jesus comes in and changes me from the inside out.  My heart changes and then my words, actions, habits and outlook changes.

Yeah, that’s a Sunday School answer, but it doesn’t mean it’s easy.  Because it means that we really can’t step our way into any change.  We simply have to believe that the answer lies with him and then make ourselves available to that power.

It’s sounds sort of mystical. But really, I think it is.  I experienced more healing and life change lying on my daughter’s bed crying in prayer and release in 20 minutes than I ever have on any self-help plan.

And so, I’ve come to believe this: the best self-help plan is to help myself to Jesus.

And I don’t mean in the same way of helping myself to another plate of dinner.

I mean, helping myself get to those moments with Jesus.  For this, I need to ask myself two questions.

First, what is distracting me from Jesus?

What are the things that are keeping me from Jesus? Is it TV, is it too many commitments, is it simple preoccupation of my mind?  Of course, we have to live life and we can’t be in prayer 100% of the time, but as I talked about last week and grocery shopping, all of life can be centered around him while we do life.  It’s a matter of our mind being focused.  But sometimes, yes, our DVRs are too full and we’ve stretched ourselves too thin and we blame busyness for why we can’t get to Jesus.

So, find your distractions and get rid of them as much as possible.

For me, it was TV.  I was spending hours and hours every night watching it. Now, I don’t.  It’s pretty fabulous.

The second question we have to ask is how do I experience Jesus?

It’s fine to rid yourself of distractions, but if you only replace it with other distractions you’re not helping yourself to Jesus at all. We have to find out how we experience Jesus best.  Do you hike? Do you paint? Do you serve?  Do you sing? Do you write?  What are the moments where you experience him?  Find those and do those more in place of your distractions.

I’ve found I experience more of him when I’m reading and writing.  So, I do more of that in the place of TV.

When I do this, he teaches me all the things I need to have a better marriage, be a better worker, how to parent, how to have a better body image, how to keep my friends.

The best self-help is helping myself to Jesus.

It is simply this: what distractions do you have keeping you from Jesus and how do you need to replace them?

I’m in love with these Armed with Truth temporary tattoos and I can’t even come up with another eloquent way to introduce them.  I LOVE THEM and I want you to love them too!

After seeing them over at ohAmanda.com, I bought them for both me and the girls last month and I’ve had one on nearly every day since.

They last about a week, plenty of time to memorize each one.  From their site, their mission is to “make a way to get scripture into your memory bank by allowing you to take advantage of all the micro moments in life.”

I love knowing the girls are walking around with a Scripture literally on them at all times and I truly have used it to memorize them.  Plus, tattoo without all the commitment and needles!

“Bind my wandering heart to thee”

I loved wearing that one from their designer pack. Every time I saw it, I was reminded to keep my mind and heart centered around Christ.

And it’s not just girls wearing them.  I mean, how awesome does this look on @alexsparks?

The whole entire concept is just rad, ya’ll.  RAD.  And I don’t even say rad.

And I have some great news just for you!

They have a Father’s Day special going on right now for 20% off! Use coupon code FATHERSDAY2014.

And, and!!

To celebrate the World Cup, they have a missions pack special right now. For every one purchased, they’ll donate the Spanish version to Global Soccer Ministries who use soccer as a way to share the gospel.  HOW AWESOME IS THAT?

It’s like TOMS for temporary tattoos!

I think I just sold myself on another pack!  Whaddya waitin’ for?

This post is not sponsored, but images were used with permission.

I roll out of bed and pad into the kitchen. I want to keep sleeping but time is limited before the party and things need done.  I drink my caffeine fix and begin carrying the stray items from the living room to the bedroom where it should be.  I clean off the dishes from my desk. The spoon with peanut butter on it, now smeared in a spot. The ice cream bowl with a puddle of melted ice cream. The glass of water still half empty.  I gather them in the kitchen sink and sigh when I realize the dishes in the dishwasher are still dirty.  I have to run that cycle and then wash the dishes in the sink. I glance over at the pile of sheets in front of the laundry room.  Three beds worth high, all making crinkled wrinkles, waiting to be folded.

I don’t want to wash dishes and I don’t want to fold sheets.  What’s the point anyway? I’m going to get them all dirty again and then have to do this all again. I’m tired of the cycle.

Scott walks in the kitchen and he’s dressed for a day in the yard.  It’s where I should head when the dishes and laundry are done.  “I just don’t feel like doing anything today.” He agrees, but he throws his cup in the sink and exits out the garage door to do it all anyway.

I look across the house and see all the things out of place. I think about the dirty bedrooms and the bills that need paid and the errands that need run.  I just can’t today.  What is the point? We do it all and for what? So we can keep doing the same thing over and over and over?

I sulk back to my bedroom, throw the covers back over myself and turn on The Lizzie Bennet Diaries on YouTube and decide I just can’t.  I watch a few more episodes, disappointed when Darcy still hasn’t made an appearance and decide I need to exercise.  It’s the last thing I feel like doing but endorphins and all.  I need some this morning and it’s the right thing to do, isn’t it?

I manage to get dressed and make it in to the living room.  I squat and burpee and think about all the reasons I shouldn’t be having a bad morning.  I have a wonderful, hard working husband, two beautiful girls, my dream job, two good cars, I work out every day, have good friends, have sex regularly, I can fit into a size 2 for goodness sakes.  Isn’t this what the magazines tell me should make me happy?

I high punch and then squat lower and low punch and I keep punching and punching and punching and as fast as my arms are pumping, my eyes start doling out tears.  What is the point? Why am I not happy?  Punch, punch, punch. I feel frustrated but feel guilty that I am.

I cry and tell God to help because I can’t today.

He tells me these feelings are good and I’m surprised.  He reminds me that it’s true, there is more.  There is a place where things don’t get dirty and people don’t feel sad and women don’t cry in the middle of their workout and they don’t even need to workout.  It’s a home in heaven and this tension, this emptiness I feel is a reminder that I’m only passing through here.  My heart yearns for more because there is more.

“In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also. John 14:2-3

But why? Why do I have to go through all the mundane?

I’m reminded of Jeremiah 29:11

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

He has plans and  a purpose.  It is all pointless without Him.  Nothing—not one thing—on this earth can make you happy.  I have enough of it all to tell you.  That job, those clothes, that house, that bank account, those kids—not one single change will make you happier.  Only in Christ and his purpose and hope can do it.  If he didn’t have plans for me, I wouldn’t be here.  And if I have eternal plans and the mundane is a part of it, I can do it.

I go sit at my desk, my workout, both of my body and tears over, and glance at my desk calendar.  Arianne Segerman’s words are a balm.

These chores, these tasks, these burdens carried—they never go unnoticed.  Each bead of sweat for God is counted and known… . I want to have my faith pull me into places and heart-positions I never expected.  I want to always be reaching. I want to be noticed by the One that holds it all in His hands. I want to build a life of memorials.

Tears threaten again, but they’re happy tears.  He sees.  He saw.  In just minutes, he has given me words to let me know I’m not alone in all this.  He’s holding it all together and working it out for good.

Do you ever have days like that? Where you feel depressed and hopeless and just tired of it all?  I do.  All the time, I do.  These three things can help.  Remember:

1. This world is not our home.  We aren’t satisfied with this world because we aren’t supposed to be.  Let it be a reminder of our eternal hope.
2. God has a purpose and plan for us while we’re here that yes, includes the mundane too.
3. God sees all our efforts, even when no one else does.  Those tears shed?  He’s counting them.

Maybe my Saturday is your Monday today.  Take heart.  It’s not just me and it’s not just you.  We’re in this together.

I’ve been thinking a lot about adoption lately. And not just about our adoption, but our spiritual adoption as Christians.

There’s a child somewhere that we will eventually adopt, but right now he’s not a part of our family.  We don’t call that child our son yet and we don’t treat him as our son. We have to go through the adoption process and then we will begin grafting him into our family. We will begin doing all the things that parents do.

Even though an adult doesn’t give birth to a child, when he provides for, protects, trains, teaches, looks after, favors and advocates for that child, then that makes him the child’s parent. 

But it is the adoption that is the turning point.  At one time he is not our child, the adoption happens and then he is our child.

I thought about the implications of that spiritually and realized there’s a statement that gets tossed around that’s simply false: We’re all God’s children.

We’re not.  We are not all God’s children.

Yes, we are all created by him and loved by him. Isaiah 30 even says he longs to be gracious to us. But that does not immediately make us his children, just as a biological father is not necessarily the one to actually parent a child.

I started thinking on this because those feel like strong words.  It feels icky to think about one person being in while another one gets left out.  It doesn’t feel very loving to say you’re not a child of God.

I started doing some reading in the Bible to see what it has to say.

First, let’s see the concept of adoption.  We know adoption simply means that at one time a person is not a part of a family and then at some time, he is.

Ephesians 1:5 says, “In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will.”

This confirms the idea of spiritual adoption and explains that it comes through Jesus Christ.

Jesus himself explains this spiritual adoption as a spiritual rebirth in John 3 “No one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit give birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’”

Romans 8 explains who children of God are by saying “…those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship.  And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father’.  The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.”

So, not only do we become children of God through faith in Christ, but the Holy Spirit helps us know that we are children of God.

1 John 3 really drives home the point, though, “No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.”

And so, this is telling us some people are children of God and some are children of the devil.  Those are hard words!!

So why do I bring this up?  It seems sort of depressing, right? 

Well, in an attempt to be accepting and loving to everyone, I think our culture many times has either replaced the gospel message or simply forgotten how powerful it is.  The gospel says we must be adopted into God’s family through faith in Christ to be a child of God. 

As Christians, we need to be aware of that truth first (and rejoice) and then, that should burden us to share the true gospel! 

Romans 10:9 says, “If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

That’s the turning point and the good news!  It’s EASY to be adopted into God’s family.  No paperwork, no interviews, no money.  When we believe, we are grafted into God’s family. God is then the one that spiritually feeds us, protects us, His word trains us, His Spirit teaches us, Christ goes before the Father to advocate for us. He becomes our Abba Father. And we can know it.

How great is the love the Father has lavished on us,
that we should be called children of God. 1 John 3:1