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Showing posts from 2016

Does Faithfulness Equal Blessing?

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I’ve been under the heavy hand of the Lord lately. I'm feeling like a cup of packed brown sugar, pressed down – not from rebuke or correction, but from blessing and overflow. I’m not complaining at all. Given a choice between rebuke or reward, anyone would choose reward. As I’ve shared my experiences with friends close to me, they’ve celebrated what’s happening for me and offer comments, such as, “The Lord is blessing your faithfulness,” or “You’ve been faithful all these years, and the Lord is rewarding you.” I appreciate their sentiments, but is it really because I’ve been faithful, or is it because He is faithful? For every outward witness of faithfulness on my part, there are at least as many (and much more) times when I’ve been faithless. I know my heart, and my thoughts –scandalous at best and heinous at its worst. Paul said, “There is nothing good in me, except Christ,” (paraphrasing Romans 7 & 8). Sadly, how much more true it is of me. So, no. To my friends I

Loving Well

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On a recent trip to New York, I found myself swept up with a crowd of tourists just off Wall Street. Amidst the sea of tourists and foreigners (myself, being one of them – both a tourist and a foreigner), I looked for a local to help me locate the correct subway train to take me to midtown. I was distracted by a soapbox preacher. He wasn’t literally on a soapbox, it was a little step ladder and he was loudly condemning passersby for their sin which God was compelled, by His nature, to judge us for. Mildly amused and cringing internally, I stood listening for a few minutes and watching the effect on the crowd. No one was paying much attention to him – he was just one of the many “spectacles” on display. Looking around, focussed again on my task to find a local to assist me, I noticed a fellow wearing a suit and tie and thinking he might be a professional who worked on Wall Street, I asked him if he could direct me to the correct subway station. I found out he wasn’t local

What is God Consuming in Your Life?

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I have one child. Not many people are bold enough to ask why. It’s a touchy subject. There may be pain involved and you may not be prepared to respond to the emotional need. Others feel judged by their choice and feel like they need to justify their choice to have one child in a culture where the “perfect” family consists of mom, dad, and two children. You definitely don’t want to ask someone like that for fear of having your head bit off and handed back to you after only after a tirade of a women’s right to choose. Me? I wanted four children. It didn’t work, and yes, it was painful. Month after month, my body betrayed me and my desperate desire continued to grow. I went to see a fertility doctor and after several months and rounds of test, we were told we were incapable of having a baby – despite our having had a successful pregnancy (anomaly, they said). I was devastated. And I was mad. Mad at my body. Mad at my Man. Mad at my having to give up a desire. And I was mad a