Pieces of the Puzzle

The LORD God proclaims to these bones: I am about to put breath in you, and you will live again. ~ Ezekiel37:5 (CEB)

There was a time in my life that I struggled just to breathe. I carried such burdens inside of me I felt that there was no more space left for my lungs to fill with air. My breathing actually felt shallow. Breathing is essential but unless there is something wrong we never pay attention to the act of breathing. The Bible speaks of the Holy Spirit being the breath of God, breathing in us. The Greek word for “spirit” is pneuma, which means “breath.”

There is a song by Mercy Me, “Breathe”. At times when I was almost gasping for air, I would say in my heart, “You are the air I breathe; You are the air I breathe”. This was my prayer when no other words would form. Ezekiel 37:9 says, “Breathe into these dead bodies and let them live.” I feel that God has done that in my life. Every time I reached out to Him, He breathed life back into this dead heart bit by bit.

When I don’t have words to pray, Romans 8:36 assures me “In the same way, the Spirit comes to help our weakness. We don’t know what we should pray, but the Spirit himself pleads our case with unexpressed groans.” It is the Holy Spirit of God who prays in us, who offers us the gifts of love, forgiveness, kindness, goodness, gentleness, peace, and joy. Lamentations 3:25 tells me “The Lord is good to those who hope in Him, to the person who seeks Him”, so I hope in God with my whole heart. Psalm 130:5 says, “I hope, LORD. My whole being hopes, and I wait for God’s promise.” What is God’s promise to me? “Don’t you know that you are God’s temple and God’s Spirit lives in you?” (1Co 3:16) As long as I let Him live in me I can have life because it is His breath that breathes through me. When it is God’s breath flowing through my lungs it is not a struggle to breathe.

Lord, You are the air I breathe. I thank You for your Holy Presence that lives in me. I thank You that You give me words every day to tuck deep in my heart. I would be lost without You. May I always be desperate for Your love. Amen.

“The LORD, “David added, “who rescued me from the power of both lions and bears, will rescue me from the power of this Philistine.” “Go!” Saul replied to David. “And may the LORD be with you!” ~1 Samuel 17:37(CEB)

I like the story of David and Goliath. A boy versus the giant and the boy wins. It isn’t the underdog theme that I love. It is the confidence that David shows us in the story. He had such an intimate relationship with God that he KNEW that God would take care of him. How did he know? David knew God would take care of him because they had a history together. David tells us some of this history. “The Lord, who rescued me from the power of both lions and bears, will rescue me from the power of this Philistine.” David had the confidence to fight the giant because he had a history with God where God had delivered him from the lions and bears. To him, it was a natural assumption that God would take care of him in this situation as well.

It is important for us to be aware of the times that God has worked in our lives. Even the small things He has done for us. Recalling the small things He has done bolsters our confidence for the big things in life. If God only came waltzing through our lives at the big events we might not have the faith we need to believe that he will show up in great times of need. I think he blesses us even in small things so that we can learn to trust him and as our trust grows and our relationship blossoms we gain the confidence that we need for the big battles in life.

The challenge for us is to look for those small blessings that God bestows on us. Sometimes they might be easy to overlook or to say that it is just coincidence. When we learn to look for God in the small moments of our lives we will gain the knowledge we need to see him in the crucial times as well. God is always with us. We have to train our eyes to see him at work in our lives.

Heavenly Father, I know the Bible tells me that you are always with me. Open my eyes to see you in the small ordinary moments so that I will be confident to find you in the trials of life. Amen.

Therefore, stop worrying about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Matthew 6:34 (CEB)

Sometimes I think I hold the market on worry. I get so pulled into all the possibilities all the” what ifs” that I sometimes just wear myself out. As a child, I would almost make it a game. If I could think of all the “what ifs” then maybe I could keep them from happening. Even though I know the odds of really being able to control things in that way I still find myself in my old habit of worry. Maybe that is part of the key to the problem. I have let worry become a habit. I do it without even thinking. It has become part of a thought process that I need to unlearn.

Just before verse 34 in Chapter 6 of Matthew, we are told that God knows what we need. He dresses the earth in splendor, He feeds the sparrows, He knows the number of hairs on my head. Can’t I trust Him to know what I need as well? How I can learn to set aside my worry is to just deal with things as they come. God has equipped me to do this which is why He tells us to focus only on today. Worry only brings frustration and frustration is the first clue that God isn’t in my situation.

Lord help me to practice this day the art of taking life as it comes. You know what I need and I am assured by your Word that you will meet my every need for this day. Amen.

I am hunched over, completely down; I wander around all day long, sad. My insides are burning up; there’s nothing in my body that isn’t broken. I’m worn out, completely crushed; I groan because of my miserable heart. Everything I long for is laid out before you, my Lord; my sighs aren’t hidden from you. My heart pounds; my strength abandons me. Even the light of my eyes is gone. My loved ones and friends keep their distance from me in my sickness; those who were near me now stay far away. ~Psa 38:6-11 (CEB)

When they finished eating, Jesus asked Simon Peter, Simon son of John, do you love me more than these? Simon replied, Yes, Lord, you know I love you. Jesus said to him, Feed my lambs. Jesus asked a second time, Simon son of John, do you love me? Simon replied, Yes, Lord, you know I love you. Jesus said to him, Take care of my sheep. He asked a third time, Simon son of John, do you love me? Peter was sad that Jesus asked him a third time, Do you love me? He replied, Lord, you know everything; you know I love you. Jesus said to him, Feed my sheep. ~John 21:15-17

Jesus answered, “Whoever loves me will keep my word. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. ~John 14:23 (CEB)

This time of year it seems that I just run, run, run. My schedule is changing moving from the school year into the summer months. Classes are ending, year-end programs, plays, and award ceremonies are crowding into the schedule. Sometimes I look at my calendar and wonder just how I can be three places at once. Truth is I can’t but I still will stand there hoping for a miracle so I won’t have to choose between all of the seemingly equally important commitments that I have gotten myself into. On paper, my schedule always works, until May (or December.)

These things were my assets, but I wrote them off as a loss for the sake of Christ. But even beyond that, I consider everything a loss in comparison with the superior value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I have lost everything for him, but what I lost I think of as sewer trash, so that I might gain Christ and be found in him. In Christ I have a righteousness that is not my own and that does not come from the Law but rather from the faithfulness of Christ. It is the righteousness of God that is based on faith. The righteousness that I have comes from knowing Christ, the power of his resurrection, and the participation in his sufferings. It includes being conformed to his death so that I may perhaps reach the goal of the resurrection of the dead. ~Philippians 3:7-11 (CEB)

“The holiest of men still need Christ, as their Prophet, as ‘the light of the world.’ For he does not give them light, but from moment to moment: The instant he withdraws, all is darkness. They still need Christ as their King; for God does not give them a stock of holiness. But unless they receive a supply every moment, nothing but unholiness would remain. They still need Christ as their Priest, to make atonement for their holy things. Even perfect holiness is acceptable to God only through Jesus Christ.” ~From “Christian Perfection” by John Wesley

Moment to moment, breath to breath is not such a bad way to live if it keeps me in God’s light. It helps me to feel better when some of Christian history’s “great’s” speak of having to live just one day at a time. It is the way we were intended to live so that we never think too highly of ourselves and thus take our eyes of the reason we are able to live in the light in the first place.

Thank You Heavenly Father, for the power of the resurrection and the journey towards eternal life. May I follow in the footsteps of the saints that have gone before me always striving for perfection. Amen.

The LORD’s trees are well watered— the cedars of Lebanon, which God planted, where the birds make their nests, where the stork has a home in the cypresses. The high mountains belong to the mountain goats; the ridges are the refuge of badgers. God made the moon for the seasons, and the sun too, which knows when to set. You bring on the darkness and it is night, when every forest animal prowls. The young lions roar for their prey, seeking their food from God. When the sun rises, they gather together and lie down in their dens. Then people go off to their work, to do their work until evening. LORD, you have done so many things! You made them all so wisely! The earth is full of your creations! ~Psalm 104:16-24 (CEB)

“And in this [God] showed me something small, no bigger than a hazelnut, lying in the palm of my hand, as it seemed to me, and it was as round as a ball. I looked at it with the eye of my understanding and thought: What can this be? I was amazed that it could last, for I thought that because of its littleness it would suddenly have fallen into nothing. And I was answered in my understanding: It lasts and always will, because God loves it; and thus everything has being through the love of God.

In this little thing I saw three properties. The first is that God made it, the second is that God loves it, the third is that God preserves it. But what did I see in it? It is that God is the Creator and the protector and the lover. For until I am substantially united to [God], I can never have perfect rest or true happiness, until, that is, I am so attached to [God] that there can be no created thing between my God and me.” ~From Showings by Julian of Norwich

Almighty God, in wisdom you have created us and all things. Provide my daily needs and grant me grace and strength to fulfill the ministry that You call me to today. I offer up my prayer in the name and spirit of Christ. Amen.

Therefore, my loved ones, just as you always obey me, not just when I am present but now even more while I am away, carry out your own salvation with fear and trembling. God is the one who enables you both to want and to actually live out his good purposes. Do everything without grumbling and arguing so that you may be blameless and pure, innocent children of God surrounded by people who are crooked and corrupt. Among these people you shine like stars in the world because you hold on to the word of life. This will allow me to say on the day of Christ that I haven’t run for nothing or worked for nothing. But even if I am poured out like a drink offering upon the altar of service for your faith, I am glad. I’m glad with all of you. You should be glad about this in the same way. Be glad with me! ~Philippians 2:12-18(CEB)

At a baptismal service recently, I was deeply impressed when the pastor did not dip his hand into a baptismal font already filled with water. Instead he took a pitcher, lifted his arm above his head, and poured the water into the font, creating a small waterfall. As he poured, he gave us scriptural verses on the water of life as a direct, loving energy from God that blesses and heals and flows from within us, through us, beyond us.

We begin to see our daily acts of love as flowing like a river from our center, and poured out on the dry and needy lands around us. Our actions become not willpower but released gestures of pouring, flowing.

When the woman of Bethany came to Jesus and poured precious ointment on his head, it was a released gesture of generous love. ‘She has done a beautiful thing to me,’ said Jesus to those who were scandalized at such an act.

To do a ‘beautiful thing’ to God in released, responsive love is intended to be the only source for the Christian’s words and actions. As one of my students once said to me, ‘The Christian is release from perfectionism to being a love of life.’” ~From Release by Flora Slosson Wuellner

Lord of life and love, help me to worship You in the holiness of beauty, that some beauty of holiness may appear to me. Quiet my soul in Your presence with the stillness of a wise trust. Lift me above dark moods, and the shadow of sin, that I may find Your will for my life; through Jesus Christ my Lord. Amen