2015 . . .

Many people look forward to the new year for a new start on old habits. ~Author Unknown

One day into the New Year, and I still can’t come up with any resolutions . . . or anything much to say . . . we feel like we’ve been sucked up into a whirlwind of people, food, fun, memories, delights, and a few too many Christmas cookies. This time last year the following observation was the closest thing I came to, making a resolution:

Whatever commands your hope will control your heart, and what controls your heart will direct your words and behavior. (Paul Tripp) (January 1, 2014)

Ryan Bell, chose an unusual of set of commands and controls for a Christian pastor in 2014, and discovered he was no longer a Christian after living a year as an atheist. (Link to article)    I don't understand how he did it – but I can see that embracing practices antithetical to one’s profession can have many repercussions. What if I chose to take a year off from my marriage, and live like I wasn’t married to Doug?  First, I don’t think he’d give me a year  -- our relationship would quickly break down, and I wager, he might not return my phone calls.

  

So, let’s look at what hope controlled me.

When I skim the journal I kept last year, the hope that God is who He told Moses He was, saw me through – but not without detours through major skirmishes with silliness, sadness and self-absorption.  

For as fast as last year went – I see days upon days of beauty and delight, and God’s faithfulness. Yet, I know what I was thinking, even as I tried to sound “spiritual.”  I hear gnawing little “Yes, but’s . . .” like the rats who sharpened their teeth on the wiring in my former car. (Rat-tled; Those Rascally Rodents Return)

I got around to completing the Year End Reflections’ “query” that I recommended in early November. Looking at the highlights, the disappointments and the game-changes for 2014, so many people I know have suffered staggering losses – horrifying experiences. Even the most modest inventory gets me off the pity pot!  I am grateful to be alive, having the wherewithal to remember and resolve!

10 Highlights – Accomplishments, Best Memory

1.              Being ALIVE to ruminate!

2.              Enjoying my best friend and husband

3.              Family reunion at a family wedding

4.              Meeting our newest grandchild

5.              Seeing other grandchildren perform in a Christmas recital

6.              Completing gift book of art projects

7.              Remembering Barbara Black

8.              Gaining the trust of a few women who want sobriety

9.              Deepening friendships

10.          Getting another commission on a painting – and finishing it!

10 Disappointments – Failures, Missed Opportunities

1.              Broken relationships that remain as unhealed wounds

2.              Failure to hear what others were trying to say

3.              Not doing what I knew I should have done, could have done or said

4.              Doing what I should not have done

5.              Seeing the cunning, baffling power of addiction

6.              Big starts to projects  -- too many remain unfinished!

7.              Caring more about my issues than others

8.              Fear of others, real and imagined

9.              Grumbling, worrying and griping about stuff I can’t control

10.          Ignoring what I can control. 

3 Things You Focused on – What you put the most of your time into

1.      Self

2.     Others

3.     God

3 Things You Forgot – What you didn’t get around to

1.     God – that He is always faithful even when I am not.

2.     Others – that many, many have wisdom worth applying.

3.     Self – Just because I have been through a lot, doesn’t mean I know it all.

Reflection. How does this inform your plans for the New Year?

1.              Don’t live like I doubt God is, or that He is beyond discovery or knowing. (Jeremiah 29:13)

2.              Or, that His word is not wise counsel for me. (Psalm 19, 119)

3.              Although all the highlights in the year have had depressing shadows, and

4.              All the disappointments were not without glimmers of light, which were not always initially apparent,

5.              God left blessed fingerprints of His grace.

6.              The biggest blessing this year, as always, has been the people – many and varied -- and I don’t want to forget in the New Year that those I love are only on loan. Don’t take people for granted! (and get over being taken for granted!)

7.              Today is all I have --therefore, spend my time wisely.  (Try Harder)

8.              In 2015, I choose to place my mustard seed-sized hope in the God who sees me, and in His word, which understands me. (Timothy Keller, The King’s Cross.) 

Microbes Aren’t Our Biggest Problem

In the nineteenth century men lost their fear of God and acquired a fear of microbes. ~Author Unknown*

 

Image Source

One headline about a deadly viral threat helps me breathe easier – Dozens in Dallas considered at risk freed from Ebola monitoring. Then I learn that one mosquito has been found to be a carrier of the West Nile virus in a neighborhood not too far from here.    

In the words of Charley Brown: “Good Grief”

Ebola and West Nile virus conjure feelings like a shroud of suffering and death is about to descend – surely I will see people dropping like flies! (Myself among them!)

Yet, when I calm myself down, and read, I see even bigger killers – flu, car crashes and skin cancer!  (NYT: Scarier than Ebola) Moreover, their power may be reined in with getting a shot, using a seat belt, and applying a sun block.  Alas, simply washing our hands after using  gas pump, grocery shopping, or  going to the bathroom is still not a universal practice! (People's Pharmacy -- We all Need to Wash our Hands!)

 Gross! 

(But shame on me for even looking at my phone when driving --  Six Times more Dangerous than Drinking)

We are too often our own worst enemies! The invisible enemies, detected only by a microscope, terrorize us as relentlessly as our own willfulness, and Islamic radicalism. 

When triplets of terror rob me of sleep,  I look comfort in Scripture. Word to the wise – Amos is a sobering place to start – Damascus and Gaza, war-torn sites in today’s news, were in the prophet’s sight too.  Then he sees Judah, and Israel, and the disaster seems as inescapable as a pandemic, or holy war. His prophecies did not soothe my fears, I have to tell you! The Lord’s plans he saw were not for prosperity or peace! Just a tiny verse comforted, here and there: 

 Be good, flee evil—and live! Then the Lord, the Lord Almighty, will truly be your Helper, as you have claimed he is.   Hate evil and love the good; remodel your courts into true halls of justice. Perhaps even yet the Lord God of Hosts will have mercy on his people who remain. (Amos 5:14-15, The Living Bible)

Easier said than done in these crazy days when everybody demands freedom to do as they please. 

Eugene Peterson’s interpretation of the Beatitudes is like a cup of cold water:

5 ^1-2 When Jesus saw his ministry drawing huge crowds, he climbed a hillside. Those who were apprenticed to him, the committed, climbed with him. Arriving at a quiet place, he sat down and taught his climbing companions. This is what he said:

³ “You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule.

⁴ “You’re blessed when you feel you’ve lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.

⁵ “You’re blessed when you’re content with just who you are—no more, no less. That’s the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can’t be bought.

⁶ “You’re blessed when you’ve worked up a good appetite for God. He’s food and drink in the best meal you’ll ever eat.

⁷ “You’re blessed when you care. At the moment of being ‘care-full,’ you find yourselves cared for.

⁸ “You’re blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.

⁹ “You’re blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That’s when you discover who you really are, and your place in God’s family.

¹⁰ “You’re blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God’s kingdom.

^11-12 “Not only that—count yourselves blessed every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens—give a cheer, even!—for though they don’t like it, I do! And all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company. My prophets and witnesses have always gotten into this kind of trouble.

(Matthew 5)

Christ Jesus gave His disciples real help how to live in uncertain times – when we are at the end of our rope, brokenhearted, scared, confused, conflicted and persecuted. He is a drink of cold clean water.   

¹⁹ Lord, when doubts fill my mind, when my heart is in turmoil, quiet me and give me renewed hope and cheer. ²⁰ Will you permit a corrupt government to rule under your protection—a government permitting wrong to defeat right? ^21-22 Do you approve of those who condemn the innocent to death? No! The Lord my God is my fortress—the mighty Rock where I can hide. ²³ God has made the sins of evil men to boomerang upon them! He will destroy them by their own plans. Jehovah our God will cut them off. (Psalm 94:19-23Living Bible  TLB)

*The Quotegarden.com

Jesus at Starbucks?

Answering a disgruntled investor over advocacy of same sex marriage Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz offered investors this advice:

“If you feel, respectfully, that you can get a higher return than the 38 percent you got last year, it’s a free country. You can sell your shares of Starbucks and buy shares in another company. Thank you very much." link 

An interesting challenge [again] faces investors and customers:  How are we using our money, and to what end – whether investing a nest egg or just buying a small coffee – I mean short coffee. 

Every major corporation uses its profits as it sees fit to invest in opportunities, political, economic and social to advance the best interests of itself.  They often give to many charities representing a variety of services, not all of which Christians would consider worthwhile uses of their money. (Think Microsoft and Amazon and Apple.)  And some corporations, even those espousing  “family” values, have gotten rough press about how they treat their employees.

Starbucks has been a wonderful and successful company, putting employee well being right up with customer education and satisfaction, and the company has indeed made many investors a lot of money. See Howard Schultz’ biography and How Starbucks Saved My Life. 

A thirty-eight percent return is hard to beat, but, Starbucks’ investors and customers now have a clearer understanding of how the profits their money earned is being used, including knowing their money is providing health care and other opportunities to the employees.

What we do with this information may vary. Some of us may apply there for a job! Others threaten boycotts. One Starbucks friend urged a kinder, gentler response – describing the Lord Jesus as perhaps enjoying a latte at a local Starbucks, with fellow customers and baristas.  No, doubt Joanna would have been buying! (Luke 8:3)

How He would have addressed the CEO’s gauntlet, I can’t imagine— “pride goes before a fall?”

Possibly some of us will stay with Starbucks – perhaps believing it to be the lesser of many evils in today’s world. Or, a few of us will now think of how better to invest our time and talents and resources differently, thanking Mr. Schultz for his gracious invitation to try other venues for making money.  Maybe others of us might strike out on our own, having a bit of vision, passion and talents, like the skills that propelled Mr. Schultz?

Mr. Schultz' invitation prompts me to inventory how I “use” money.  Dolly Levi in “Hello Dolly,” said, “Money, if you will pardon the expression is like manure. It's not worth a thing unless it's spread around, encouraging young things to grow. 

I wonder if it’s time to rethink how and what I am encouraging to grow.