We've never been one to routinely make New Year's resolutions, perhaps because I don't have a whole lot of confidence that I will achieve those hastily-framed goals.  But I recently came across some I had scribbled on the back of an advertising postcard a few years back, complete with a new title.  These "resolutions" seem like ones which are also appropriate for this New Year of 2012.

                             Soul Goals

1) I want to delight God, I want to "make His day"!

2)  I want to "practice heaven" by enjoying God now.

3)  I want to have a part in advancing God's kingdom (God might want me to play a part in His holy drama, which might require me to be increasingly available and skilled for the part).

4) I want to remain open to the unexpected plans God may have for my life.

5)  I want to grow in love and graciousness in my relationships.

6)  I want to laugh more.

7)  I want to think less like a victim and more like a survivor. 

8)  I want to excel in prayer--to listen for and hear His voice, to pray with God's perspective.

What can give us courage as we face those sit-down-and-hold-on-to-myself fears that sometimes shift our focus from where we want it to be? Is the Occupy Portland movement grabbing more of our attention that we really want it to? And what about the kind of life we suspect lies ahead for our grandchildren and "greats"? The answer to these questions is clearly stated throughout our Bible: We must get to know God better, by prayer, by study, by any and every means. But sometimes we receive courage first from other people like ourselves.

Philip Brooks, a New England preacher of the last century who wrote the beloved Christmas carol "O Little Town of Bethlehem," suggests we can take courage from all the Christians who have gone before us. We are so fortunate to have all the writings of many who have left strong testimonies of their own courage in Christ. Brooks says that we are only tracing over in our own blood what earlier people wrote in theirs. In Volume 1 of his sermons, he says, "Do not misread history, that it shall seem to you when you try to do the right, as if you were the first person that ever tried it. Put yourself with your weak little struggle into the company of all the strugglers in all time."

This early concept of what we now call a "support group" can give us a better perspective. Reading about and remembering God-loving people who have struggled does build up our courage. Knowing someone here and now helps as well. In my family, I watched as our middle child, Steve, chose to live with my parents rather than follow "the plan" of completing his education at the University of Washington. That could come later because he knew how much it meant to his grandma if her husband of sixty-plus years could stay at home with her, avoiding a nursing home move until the final stages of his dementia.

Yes, take heart! God still cares and will supply what we need when we need it. "He will fulfill the desires of those who reverently and worshipfully fear him; He also will hear their cry and will save them" (Psalm 145:19, AMP). We can thank our Heavenly Father for the courage He wants to give us, to be His stand-in. And to be "His love with skin on"--for our family and for others.

My middle-son-Steve has a distinctive sense of humor and a joyful attitude about his walk with the Lord.  A few years ago he asked me to make the roasted pumpkin seeds he had enjoyed at a friend's home, following the recipe he had written out with his own touches of originality.

 

ROASTED PUMPKIN SEEDS (MAKE LOTS!)

Clean and rinse seeds of ye olde punkn.  Let 'em dry -  

'til they're dry.  Preheat oven to 425 degrees,  

melt butter in large, shallow pan.

Dump a cup of them right in there, and stir 'til each is coated with butter.  Toast in oven about 10 minutes - until light brown.  Season to taste, and taste to season.

 

As I was making up a batch of these munchies, my amusement turned to a more thoughtful mood when I came to the words, "Season to taste, and taste to season."  We are to be salt and seasoning to the world, as Jesus Christ commands us.  So it is important for us to be sensitive to those people we want to influence, just as a good cook often tastes sparingly of the food being cooked - to know how much (or how little) - to season.

 

       "Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned, as it were, with salt, so that you may know how you should respond to each person." (Colossians 4:6 NASB)

 

Since then, I've tried to prayerfully ask God for opportunities to reach out to those who are hurting, in one way or another.  There are so many who need to taste and see that the Lord is good (Psalm 34:8)...exchanging recipes with a neighbor, waiting in line at the bank, riding TriMet to work, responding to a friend who is in the midst of financial distress.

 

May we Christians be the savory kind of seasoning salt God can use effectively in this sometimes distasteful world!

 

 

 As I look out the window and see the majestic oak straining in the late September wind, I know that on the windward side the tree will be sending down a deeper root, to add strength for future winds.  I thank God that in a similar way, through prayer and unconditional trust, I can ready myself for future trials and worries.

 Traffic crept cautiously on the slick pavement.  I buttoned two buttons on my vintage raincoat, against Portland’s first drenching rain in months, and watched an attractive blond slosh by.  Drenched to the skin, her skimpy summer dress and hot pink sandals looked incredibly inadequate.  Ws she freshly transplanted from sunny Florida?  Did she decide to ignore local weather predictions? 

As I hurried to beat a yellow light at the next intersection, I almost collided with an overstuffed gentleman clutching an orange-and pink-flowered umbrella.  His countenance prompted my presumption that he probably left a conservative black umbrella at the office last spring.  Grabbing his wife’s gaudy bumbershoot probably seemed the best of several unsatisfactory options that morning.  Like Alexander (in my granddaughter’s favorite book of the moment), Mr. Pink-and Orange-Umbrella seemed well on his way to a “horrible, no good, very bad day!” 

Many regard autumn as a time of reflection on the waning year, but from my perspective it becomes a time of beginnings.  Even though my children have long ago wrapped up their school years, my life continues to glue itself firmly to the academic year.  My late husband’s chosen profession of teaching, plus the onset of school's routines for my great-grandchildren, perpetuates my living in step with the scholastic cycles.  And if there is something about September that feels unfamiliar, the feeling is renewal.  The years we date from January, but is in September that we routinely open another file on our lives. 

Church and community groups resume their familiar patterns of meeting in September, and my kitchen calendar – the one sprinkled with Norman Rockwell paintings – fills to overflowing with scribbled reminders.  The unstructured, let-it-happen feel of summer is forgotten. 

While appreciating the return to reasonable order each September, I also delight in the seasonal changes:  the glorious shout of color from the sweet gum tree beside our driveway; the chickadees and purple finches discovering again the birdfeeder outside my bedroom window; the modified slant of the sun’s rays.  And soon the accumulation of leaves tracked inside the house will rival the piles outside. 

The smells of autumn probably stir my memories the most.  Recalling the almost forgotten pungence of burning leaves, I’m tempted to chew out (mentally, anyway) the D.E.Q. for not having a nostalgic bone in its governmental body! 

The kitchen aromas seem most vivid of all:  the ever-present pot of applesauce or apple butter simmering on the stove’s back burner; the sinus-reaming smell of pickles about to slide into jars; the fragrant heads of dill and the distinctive aroma of sun-ripened tomatoes fresh from the garden, destined for twenty-eleven kinds of tomato sauce/relish. 

I notice that my physical senses seem sharper in the autumn air, as I look back…and peer ahead.  I ponder the paradoxes of life, as I see more clearly both the dawn and the sunset of my experiences.  I examine again my inside cubbyholes.  In the September of our lives most of us find that the skin we hurriedly grew in younger years – to protect ourselves and to please others – no longer fits well. 

When September’s mellow song gentles my soul again, I find great comfort and reassurance in nature’s repeated refrain.  I’m aware of the fingerprint of God as it touches not only the burnished beauty of leaves and landscape but also as it encircles my entire year and imprints my life.

 On a hot summer day you and I often experience a dryness that makes us long for some kind of refreshment that will ease our dehydrated feelings.  Sometimes it helps me to recall building a snowman last winter, with great-granddaughter Logan.  OR walking at the ocean’s edge as water and wet sand tickle my bare toes, or (when I was much younger!) jumping into a mountain lake.  Sipping a glass of ice water or taking a rejuvenating cool shower offer easy-to-do disconnects from the heat. 

I also discovered that the Bible overflows with refreshing passages, ones which demonstrate that God is thinking of more than relief from intense warmth.  He wants us to be refreshing people! 

The apostle Paul frequently praised those who refreshed others by their lives and actions.  He commends Philemon by saying, “Your love has given me great joy and encouragement, because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts of the saints”

(Philemon 7).  Paul also asks the Lord to show mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, because “he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains” (2 Timothy 1:16). 

According to my dictionary, the word refresh means “to revive; to renew by stimulation; to rejuvenate.”  People have often refreshed me as they provided the encouragement I depended on to continue with whatever ministry God had nudged me into.  Proverbs 11:25 reminds us that “A generous man (or woman) will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed.”

 Since the beginning of my married life, I have enjoyed growing and preserving veggies and berries each summer, to the extent that I end up pickling and jamming, canning and freezing, way more than my household can use in a reasonable amount of time.  I  seem to feel a compulsion to do something with whatever is in season.

Late last summer I was making a batch of blackberry jam (berries courtesy of my great-grandson, who put more of the fragrant globs into his mouth than he did into the pail!), when I discovered a shortage of jam jars.  Only two empty ones remained after my busy summer of preserving.  So I hastily gathered together any available container - a glass cream pitcher, assorted cups and mugs, water glasses, even a sparkling vase for flowers.  Then I poured in the bubbling purple liquid and watched how beautifully the jam assumed the shape of each unusual container.

The next day I told my neighbor about my surrogate jam jars so we could share a smile together.  I also passed along the thought God had whispered to me earlier:  Just as the jam flowed to seamlessly fill each receptacle's curves, God's grace assumes the shape of our daily and most difficult circumstances.

"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."  2 Corinthians 12:9


 

 When I was the young mother of two boys, ages one and four, we rented a house that threatened to tumble down if one of us sneezed extra hard!  But it boasted the redeeming feature of a lovely old weeping willow out back.  While (sometimes that word became "if") my little ones napped, I parted the supple branches of that tree and poured out an overflowing heart to my God.  I was so new to motherhood and felt so inadequate, but this hiding place allowed me to be completely transparent and honest before the Lord.

I thank God for providing that sheltering weeping willow back in the early 1950's, just as I thank Him today for providing Himself as my minute-by-minute hiding place.  As Psalm 32:7 reminds us: "You are my hiding place; You will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance."

There are times when it is difficult to believe in the future.  Wars of one kind or another are raging all around us, and we all have some of the Cowardly Lion in us.  These are the times when we must concentrate on the present, we must look for a joyful note that brings a smile to our face, until courage returns.  Perhaps it will be the robin tugging on a worm outside, or the telephone call of a friend, or the first ripe strawberry from our own garden.  Appreciate the present until strength comes to think about tomorrow.  

"For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion; in  

the secret place of His tabernacle He shall hide me; He shall  

set me high upon a rock."  Psalm 27:5 NKJV

 

  

 Sometimes you and I plod through weeks and months when we feel pulled through the proverbial knothole.  And because that knothole usually is too small or too irregular in shape, it hurts!  We can have hope in our God, however, because we know He is faithful in His promises to us.  It is easier to hold onto genuine hope when I realize that God has never failed, and therefore will not fail me now.

 

It seems to me that quite a difference exists between being hopeful - hoping for a sunny day this weekend or hoping that your tax man will return your telephone call soon - and a life that is filled with hope.  Scripture gives us further insights in Hebrews 6:19:  "We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure."

 

Thumbing through a magazine at my dentist's office, I found a thought-provoking analogy.  Elisabeth Kubler-Ross suggested that people are like stained glass windows; they sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.

 

I want very much to put myself where God can shine through, so I can be a lighted window for those around me, and a tangible source of hope.

 

 

 

 What do we really know about zeal?  The dictionary definitions include many "feeling and doing" kinds of words such as "impassioned eagerness," and "passion".  Zeal is no shrinking violet!

Recorded examples of zeal in the Old Testament includes Elijah's in I Kings 19:10:  "I have been very zealous for the Lord."  His zeal was perhaps twinged with self-pity.  And there was also a reckless King Jehu in II Kings 10:16, who expressed his "zeal for the Lord" by driving his chariot like a madman!

The apostle Paul had been zealous for God in his early persecution of the Christian church, but with the wrong motives and a lack of knowledge.  Daniel Webster once said, "A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many bad measures".  I once saw just this kind of zeal played out as I waited at a bus stop one icy morning.  A young woman stopped to assist a gentleman who was having great difficulty keeping his footing.  As she bent to pick up his scattered parcels, this self-appointed Good Samaritan slipped and landed squarely on the man's just-purchased classical guitar CD.  Struggling in a last attempt to help, the gal accidently knocked his glasses to a crashing demise on the pavement.  Trying to maintain a controlled voice, the man asked, "Lady - have you ever considered being apathetic?"  Good intentions, but miserable results!

One problem may be that we concentrate too much on doing the work of God.  We get the proverbial cart before the horse.  I am impressed with biblical passages about the value of listening to God before acting. "Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry." (James 1:19) "Reflect on what I am saying for the Lord will give you insight into all this."  (II Timothy 2:7)  "But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart."  (Luke 2:19)

Pondering may never become hugely popular in this electronic generation.  But guidelines we need for tempering our impulsive bursts of zeal are found in the words of this 16th century prayer:
           

Lord, the Scripture says there is a time for silence and a time for speech...teach me the silence of humility, the silence of wisdom, the silence of love, the silence of perfection, the silence that speaks without words, the silence of faith.

           

Lord, teach me to silence my own heart that I may listen to the gentle movements of the Holy Spirit within me and sense the depths which are of God.