To Fear or Not to Fear

Ever since the second nurse was diagnosed with Ebola my concern over this issue has grown significantly.  At first I bought into the general consensus that this disease could be contained, and the US was equipped to handle patients in a safe manner.

But now I'm not so sure.

My 'could the world end soon?' antenna is a little higher and I'm bordering on actual concern for a mass outbreak followed by days of being quarantined at home.

At this point, its hard to know what to think really or what to expect.

It seems to me that our current generation is programmed to listen with great interest to news about potentially life altering events, but not to really expect those events to actually affect life as we know it.

While we may fear an Ebola outbreak, how many of us truly think this will happen in America?  What would that do to our national confidence if it did?

If our hospitals are unable to protect healthcare workers from contracting contagious diseases, how many healthcare workers will choose to continue to care for patients?  Could you blame them if they didn't?

I'm troubled by the potential for disaster in my country.  And perhaps equally troubled by how hard it is to believe that disaster could ever impact America.     I'm grateful to live in such a wonderful country, but the reality remains that we live in a fallen world.  And we know the end is coming.

I don't want to be caught off guard like the metaphor of a thief in the night.

I also don't want to live life in a state of fear.  

The same Jesus who promised that the end would come also declared that he came that we might have abundant life.   (Matthew 24:14, John 10:10)

Perhaps one response is to fear ebola and other potential security threats in our country in the sense of being aware of the danger and not ignoring warning signs around us, but also not to fear these things by definition of being afraid of them.

May we be wise in our understanding, childlike in our faith, and unwavering in our trust in God.

Mountain Peaks

It's hard to come down from the mountains.

My husband and I just finished an amazing vacation in the Colorado Rocky Mountains and now that we are home, I'm feeling a little sad.

I love our home, our friends, our church.  But there is something special about being on top of the world amid beauty so wild and breathtaking that it scarcely seems real.

It's hard not to miss the crispness of the air.  The snowcapped peaks.  The golden aspens. And trails and trails of forest to explore: open grassy meadows, rocky rivers, and winding inclines with spectacular vistas.

How do you come down from the mountains?

At times life offers amazing moments, incredible experiences, full of promise.
It can be hard to come down from these times as well.   How do we go about living the day to day, once we have learned about the mountain tops and long to return?

I'm sure there are many wonderful answers to this question.   But for now the promise playing in my mind is from Matthew, when a small band of Christians gathered together as they were about to watch their mountain top experience ascend into the sky.  

"Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

Beyond the Miasma

There are days when life makes sense.  Things fall into place, routine finds its groove.  During this time we don't often question life and may easily find answers when we do.

But there are other days when something pulls us from the routine and for a moment we catch a glimpse of a bigger picture.

Often these reflections are inspiring.  But sometimes the corresponding thoughts are confusing or even worse cause life to feel meaningless in that moment.

For example: Why go to college, get married, and buy a house on the lake so your kids can spend happy summer days by the shore, if later in life you will retire and your children will move on to their own homes?

What is the point of life, specifically as time slips by and generations change?

The stories of the Bible offers hope and the promise of something bigger and greater in the universe but that something can still be hard to understand.

Perhaps it is because we still live in the fog.  We don't see clearly yet.

Paul says it this way, "For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part, but then shall I know even as I am fully known."  1 Cor 13:12

Perhaps it's like a young boy growing up in a tiny town deep in the marshlands and full of miasma.  He has never left home, but on the clearest of days he can catch sight of an incredible mansion perfectly situated on the green hillside outside the village.

Somehow he knows that the mansion and surrounding lands are good and beautiful; perfect beyond his  imagination, but because he can't yet cross the wide swamp between his home and the hills beyond it, he doesn't know what the great hallways look like or how the green pastures feel beneath his feet.  He can't explore the grand rooms or run through the grounds in search of fireflies.

The boy longs to escape the poisonous air of his homeland for instinctively he knows that his very survival depends on it.  But he doesn't know exactly what to expect once he does leave.

Like the boy, we long for as many glimpses of that mansion as we can handle, but there may be things about it that we will not understand until we get there.  Things that in our mortal state, we can not understand.

So for now, may we know Way home,  trust the Truth of how to get there, and find deep hope and purpose in Life eternal.

The mansion waits.  The fireflies glow.  One day the fog will lift.

Let us hold fast to our hope.

The Quilter

Our Grandma’s life

Was like a quilt

That time and love

And family built.

Squares added in her years

Growing up in the South

Hours spent shelling peas

On the porch of the old house

Tales of her home

Cotton picking with her brothers

There was always a memory to hear

At the feet of our grandmother

As years and seasons changed

The quilt grew with time

As babies and grandkids

Each added their lines.

Memories woven in

Of summers on the lake

Homemade berry cobbler

And casseroles baked

This quilt is now finished

The work is complete

The seamstress awaiting

The Call from her sleep.

By Kristen Harmon and Jennifer Twomley

Book Review: Forever with You

Yesterday I finished reading the latest book in the Christy Miller Series, "Forever with You" by Robin Jones Gunn.

Robin is one of my favorite authors in Christian fiction.  I love her stories, and I love her pictures of God.

If you have not read the Christy Miller series, I highly recommend it.  It starts with Christy's first true encounter with God on the beach in Newport Beach and follows her journey through high school and college, and finally into married life.

Robin has a way of making her characters come to life and also weaving goodness and grace and friendship into her tales.

This is one of my favorite books in the series.  

Without giving a way too much of the plot I will say that much of this book finds Christy and Todd going through a rough patch in their marriage.  Their faith is tested and God's plan remains clouded from their sight for longer than they would have thought.

This theme of the book is highlighted in the following quote from Todd,  "He squinted his tear-filled eyes, looking like a miner who had been doing the best work he could in a dark place and was now coming out into the full sunlight."

This is a beautiful picture of faithfulness.  And a reminder that God will never let us down.  It reminds me of the verse in 1 Peter 2:9.

"But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God's very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light."

Happy reading!

Success

What is success?

In order to answer this question, we should first consider the goal.   For it is against a goal that we can measure success.

For example, if your goal is to finish college, you will know you succeeded once you obtain your degree.  Or if your goal is to get married, you will know you succeeded when you stand before an officiant exchanging vows of matrimony.  If your goal is to make $1 million dollars, you will know you have succeeded when your assets total $1 million.

But if your goal is to succeed at life in general, this is much more complex and hard to measure.

Life is full of goals and milestones.

Of emotions.

Of people.

And to 'succeed' at life you first need to know how to live life.  And to live it well.

For what appears to be success in one area may bring disappointment to the overall picture.
And what may appear to be a step back in another area may bring great joy to your life in general.

I read the quote below many years ago and its words have stuck with me as a beautiful description of success in life and a response to the question:  What is success?

"To laugh often and much; To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Comments Section

Thanks to social media, sharing blogs and articles from writers around the world has never been easier.
Which means commenting on blogs and articles written by authors from around the world has never been easier.

And goodness, the things people say.

Sometimes the comments section provides more entertainment then the actual article.
It can also be a jarring display of how easy it is to disagree with and to criticize the thoughts of another.
Especially when the commenters take an openly rude tune and are seeking to discount the article all together.

Now depending on if you agree with the author or the critic, you may view the availability of such a comments section differently but in many cases, it exists, a simple scroll away.

There is an old saying, "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all."

On its own, this expression is lacking balance; sometimes the things that need saying are not nice.  But consider the above saying combined with the additional words of wisdom below.

"To disagree, one doesn't have to be disagreeable."

"Choose your battles"

Together these proverbs become a strong trio of council when it comes to reacting to opinions whether online or in person.