Trust the big picture

A mom told me this story about her daughter-in-law -- whom she dearly loves and admires.

Jill was grateful to find a job in her field at the local arboretum.  It was only part-time, but she worked hard, attended to details, made solid contributions, and looked for full-time openings within the organization. 

A great opportunity came along to be assistant to her boss, and Jill applied.  She was devastated when another less qualified person was selected.

What to do?  Was all her hard work for nothing?  Was she not appreciated?  She decided not to go the route of self-pity or hurt feelings.  After considerable prayer she felt it was right to continue expressing helpfulness, willingness, and co-operation and stay in her part-time job.

Unknown to Jill, a grant had been applied for.  When it came through a short time later, the funds allowed her boss to create a full-time position especially suited to Jill’s talents.  Jill was one happy woman!

Usually we can’t see the big picture.  We don’t know where we fit.  The small parts we see sometimes don’t make sense or seem fair.  It’s good to remember that God knows the big picture, She knows where we fit.  Our job is to listen for direction and to do our best.

For somebody else the direction might have been not to stay.  That's where the listening comes in.   It's always fun when the pieces come together in a way that  confirms a decision as a good one.

Children's program at the arboretum

Universal language

I’m re-learning Spanish.  It makes sense, to me, to be able to speak more than one language in today’s bi-lingual world.  Many of my friends and relations are bi-lingual -- speaking Spanish, and/or Polish, Italian, German, or French.

I’m not sure where this Spanish brush-up is going, but one step at a time is all right for now.
 

A head on the shoulder - is love.

 

What I’m constantly reminded of, is the fact that, whatever our "native" tongue, Love is the universal language.  A smile, a nod, a wave of the hand, graciously letting another driver cut in front of you.  These signs of acceptance are a language everyone can understand.

Redeeming the past

A friend was telling me today how her dad had opposed her marriage in the 60s to an Egyptian, fearing she would be miserable.  As it turned out, her fiancé was not the stereotype Muslim her dad had feared, was a kind and considerate man, and they had a good marriage.  But it took her decades to forgive her dad’s stubbornness.

Can those years of hostility be redeemed? 

Cattle in morning mist - rural Missouri

At the Cedars Midwest Bible Seminar, one speaker shared a way that worked for her.  You have a sad story?  Find out where God was in that story.  No matter how unjust or awful the past, infinite good has never been absent.  As you find Her presence right in those terrible circumstances, you are redeeming, even revising, that story. 

The good that is God permeates all the unhappy details, and they fade in importance.  Every glimpse of God’s love at the very moment when it seemed absent, throws light on those dark shadows, until the light is greater than the darkness.  This kind of editing rewrites the story into one that no longer haunts memory.

Love boldly

Sunrise in rural Missouri

This weekend I was part of a life-transforming Bible Study Seminar.  

One speaker, whose topic had to do with the boldness of Christ, invited us to pray a two-minute prayer of repentance.  This invitation spoke to my heart.  A rush of thoughts about my thoughtless words and deeds from years ago, was followed by this sweet release, “It’s all right.  You didn’t know My love then.  It’s OK.”  A gentle peace replaced the bundle of regrets.

All this happened in less than the allotted two minutes.  What that message meant to me was not that the words or deeds were OK, but that I didn’t have to be in anguish, didn’t have to be haunted by those memories anymore.  The reason is because since that time I have found God’s love.  I know She loves me unconditionally, and my choices are much less likely to be selfish or mean and much more likely to help people than to hurt them.
 

The message was to participate boldly in a present filled with Christ -- by letting the sad past go.

Later another speaker gave us ideas for redeeming that past.  But that's another blog, another day.

If a tree falls in the forest...

If a tree falls in the forest, and no one is there is no one there to hear it, does it make a sound?

Quantum physics isn't something I pretend to understand.  It deals with atomic and sub-atomic particles, which is to say the very, very small. 

Quantum physics now proposes that we create reality by observing it.  Digest that proposition if you can.  In that sense it answers the tree falling in the forest question. 

It might be helpful to take a couple of minutes to read this user-friendly introduction to quantum weirdness.

If you just want to cut to the chase and watch the user-friendly video, open your mind to new (to most of us) concepts.

Just the Video: Dr. Quantum and the double slit experiment.

What do you think?

If God's love is unconditional, then . . .

My grandson spent the night last night.  He was worn out, he said, from the previous Scout overnight, and would just like to chill.  So we chilled.  

We had macaroni for lunch, watched a good family film.  At dinner after he had said his grace, I took his hand and thanked God out loud for our special time together; and appreciated out loud some nice things about the boy.  As I look up after the Amen, he had a sweet smile of self-discovery.  Later we went for a walk in the neighborhood, and then he worked on his homework.

He asked a question about Jesus that came straight from his faith background - which I simply turned back to him, “What do you think?”  His answer told me he was wrestling with whether or not the Bible was valid.  At the wise age of 11 he has concluded, so far, that it is.

As he was ready to fall asleep, I reopened the Jesus subject with these ideas.  “Among Christian religions there are different opinions about Jesus.  Some believe he is God; and some believe he is the Son of God.  The important thing is that God is always with us, loving us.  And Jesus came to show us how to be good and do good.  And besides that, God loves us unconditionally.”

His eyebrows shot up, so I continued, “There is nothing you or I could do to ever make God love us less.”

One of life's many great journeys

Then the forever question, “What about Hitler?”  He was also asking, unspoken, “What about evil people?  Does God love them?  Does God allow evil?” 

“I think God does not like evil.  But he gives people good and useful ideas to stop evil things from happening.  But we have to act on these ideas.  We have to be willing to stop evil.”

Long silence as he thought on these things.  And just before he closed his eyes, “Grandma?"

"Yes?"

"Then we wouldn’t need a hell.”

“No,” I smiled. “We wouldn’t need a hell.”

Finding purpose

“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”  Ghandi

I suspect this is true.  When I was in my final year of college, it became obvious that my intended career -- which I'd been preparing for, for four years, wasn't a good fit.   There were other factors that weighed in so that I felt very low, very discouraged.

Somewhere, somehow, perhaps in different words, the truth of Gandhi's statement -- needing to find my way through helping others -- shown as a guiding light in sending me off into a new career.  I took a nurses' training course with that goal in mind and never looked back.

I had discovered that real satisfaction hasn't a single selfish element.

God's love is bigger

I'm always glad to be reminded that God's love is so much bigger than human love.  Kind of like the sky out west -- it just goes on and on and on.

 I had the great joy this morning of walking and talking along a scenic path with my cousin.  We like discussing things of the Spirit, bouncing ideas off one another.  I was speaking on behalf of caution in not wanting to offend people, while she took the approach for trusting your relationship to God enough to do your highest sense of right boldly.

Part of the conversation touched on a diverse group of women she'd been part of for some months in a prior job.  They were department heads who worked together to keep their departments coordinated.

Kim was searching to understand why the group had communicated so well together.  Then she had it.  "First there was a lot of joy.  That was important.  Then there was forgiveness.  Sometimes we tromped on one anther's toes.  Forgive, forgive, forgive.  That's what made it work."

Conclusion: If God is your boss, trust that relationship.  Make decisions on the basis of that relationship, with a deep  desire to bless.  Keep your joy, and add a generous dose of quick forgiveness of honest mistakes.  As big as a western sky.

A Colorado sky