for when you need to pay attention to what you already have

Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park are located in southern Utah on either side of a town called Moab.  Our family of five, feet donned in brand new hiking boots, took one step after another over the red rocks and sand to take in views of and around arches created by God through the natural elements of wind and rain.  Decades upon decades, centuries upon centuries have slowly at times and quickly at others shaped a landscape that is ever changing and defied our sense of gravity as huge rock are upheld in ways that seem to be impossible because of the smallness of the pillars that keep them there.

From this land of red that towers over everything around it, we drove north to the area surrounding another natural phenomenon, a salt lake no where near an ocean.  The mountains here towered as well, but instead of the red of the south you could see the snow caps vibrantly contrasting against the dark gray of the rock and the green of the trees.  On a hike, that pretty much went straight up, we traveled from fall to winter and were greeted with a Narnia-like atmosphere as we reached the snow line as clumps of white clung to branches and flakes fell on our faces.  At the end we were given the breathtaking--and not just because of the cold--view of a mountain lake surrounded by snow reflecting the peaks in its waters.

After spending five days across the country in an area that touts one gorgeous view after another, it is easy for your heart to find fault in where you are or to find longing to be elsewhere.  I am ashamed to say that when we were in the airport on our way home and our sweet son wondered which passengers around us were here to come home and which were here to visit I scoffed that I wouldn't think anyone flew across the country just to visit Atlanta.  I, in that moment, crushed a bit of his spirit and love for a place that he still finds joy in visiting and gave an example of judgement and displeasure that I do not want to instill in their minds and hearts.

When we go somewhere, whether across the country or just a new friend's home, two reactions can occur, we either look down on it because it is not as good as where we are from or we elevate it because we think it is way better than what we have.  The goal would be to enjoy the beauty of other places or dig to find the beauty in other places while being able to simultaneously do both in your own backyard as well.  Whatever side we are standing on, we need to remember that every patch of grass has a weed or two and that any empty lot can hold a treasure inside.

When talking to the relative we stayed with a few of our nights, I learned that there were million dollar homes nearby whose views were nothing but factories and smoke stacks, that there are specific months of the year where they know they will not be able to see the mountains because the smog is too thick, and that there are certain sides of town that you do not want to live on, not because of crime or poor school districts, but because you will be swarmed by bugs the minute you step outside your door in the summertime.  This information did not take away from the beauty that was there, but it did bring reality to the perfect image my mind had almost instantly created on its own.

Real life, when we were looking at all the beauty the arches had to offer we were doing it wearing rain coats praying for just a bit of blue sky or just a relief from the drops falling in our eyes, but because we had flown across the US we were determined to not let the weather cloud our eyes from the beauty there was to see.  I began to think what if that were my every day, what if I refused to let the the 'weather' tempt my eyes to see anything but the beauty of where I am.

This idea was transferred to a different aspect of life this week while listening to an episode of The Pivot featuring Missy Wallace who founded and leads the Nashville Institute for Faith and Work which helps people see how their given gifts should drive their job search and how using those gifts you have been given can advance the Kingdom in any and every occupation.  When more than a minute is used to explain the way a spreadsheet compares to the character of God, you know she believes wholeheartedly in the concept.

Regardless of the goals we want to achieve and the places that we will be taken in the future, the here and now of where we are is the here and now for a reason and we must search for the beauty of it and our purpose in it.

It is not a coincidence that Colossians was in my reading when we returned home.  At the end of a book that I have read countless times and love so much was a verse that had not yet ever caught my eye.

Pay attention to the ministry you have received in the Lord, so that you can accomplish it. Col. 4:17

This one line was written to a specific person but it is included in this holy text for us all.  We have been given a ministry to be done with the gifts we have been given.  It will not be easy, we will not be perfect at it, there are times where we will look at another in their work and become envious because we think their job is better or easier or more special.  There will be times we elevate ourselves because we think what we are doing is better or easier or more special.  In truth, they are all integral, because there is a need for His people in every aspect of life, every career, every hobby.  In each, His love can be shown and His gospel can be told and the grassroots movement that was started long ago will continue to flourish.

I can be just as thankful and overwhelmed by the beautiful mountains in the west as I am by the pecan trees right outside my door.  I can be just as purposeful to God in the painting of furniture, the typing of words, and the mothering of my children than is the doctor who helps them get better when they are ill.  You are no different.

I am praying for you, praying you see the beauty in the here and now, even if you do still long for the future and praying that you will be able to pay attention to the ministry you have received, so that you can accomplish it.  Pray for me.

for when we need to change the way we see

"Auggie can't change the way he looks.  Maybe we can change the way we see." ~Mr. Tushman

Like Auggie in Wonder, there is much about our lives that we cannot change.  As much as we are able to choose on our own through careful thought or wild abandon, control is something we have not been given, no matter how strongly we fight to take it anyway.  The reasoning for this is the most loving thing I can think of, because if we have the ability to control, our view will remain focused on ourselves, on what we want, and what we have to do to get it.  Eyes lost in themselves will always be lost.  

The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light.  Matthew 6:22 

It is beyond our limited vision where Truth and Beauty lie.  It is with the eyes of Christ that light can flood in and enable us to truly see.  When His Father in all His omniscient perfection has created a world, our humanity does not have the ability to comprehend the view, it is only with the newness of life that the fuzzy begins to turn to a more clear crystal. 

Long ago in my days of teaching, the principal frequently talked about paradigm shifts, a change in how you view a person or a situation that results in a change of approach.  Within each believer is the ability to shift, led by the spirit within.  Like an artist in the midst of capturing their imagination on canvas, we sometimes need just a slightly different angle, a bit of a head tilt to see what is truly there and what is the core essential for life.  You don't have to walk a mile down the road.  It just takes a step or two to get a different view.

Baseball season started last weekend and with three boys it makes for a full few months with lots of excitement, lots of disappointments, and lots of red dirt!  Last night our oldest had his first game and for an abundant amount of reasons they got crushed by a team they should have been able to stand toe to toe with.  But instead of facing the usual sullen, frustrated, teary, angry, boy that typically appears after that type of situation, I looked into a face of peace and good attitude, ready to put that game behind him and move on to the next.  Somewhere in that hour and a half his vision changed and with it the ability to see the high and low for what they were and what they could teach instead of blending it all into a failure.  My mama heart was beyond thankful for those new eyes last night, even if in the growing up process they don't show up again next time.

Though we can not truly change our hearts alone, we can learn when they need to be changed, when our eyes, the windows to our souls, should be looking elsewhere than the spot they have chosen. 

Here are four different times when we need to change the way we see...

1. When you can't tell where you're going.

       Whether you choose to read this figuratively or literally, we all get lost sometimes.  Driving home from a place you didn't know how to get to in the first place and then now have to reverse directions to get back is tricky.  Life is trickier.  After plowing through thinking you're going one way, you can look up and see that you recognize nothing around you.  This is going to happen.  When it does stop, do not keep going without changing what you're seeing.  Stop looking at what you don't recognize and look at what you do.  What in the midst of the situation looks familiar, do you see Christ anywhere.  I promise he's there.  He will keep you in perfect peace when your mind is stayed on Him.  A promise to cling to from Isaiah 26:3. 

       The right way to go when you can't tell where you're going could be to turn around and start over or it could be to keep walking forward in faith, but if in all your ways you are acknowledging him, he WILL make your paths straight whatever direction they go.

2.  When you're not sure where to look. 

       Same answer, different situation.     

       Standing at the edge of decision, afraid of falling if you jump.  We all get lost, but then at other times we are all frozen in place not even having started because we have no clue where to even start looking for the "right" thing to do.

        If you are Christ's, lovingly held in the palms of your creator, His Good surrounds you with a greater safety than any other harness you wrap around you or any parachute you strap on your back.  Step off.  The feeling of falling will begin but at the end the safety of his arms will hold you secure and the view around you will be more than worth the first step.

3.  When things seem like they are falling apart.

       I am not an expert on watching life crumble around me, but that doesn't mean I am not well versed in the topic.  If you have a desire to read 31 posts written four years ago, follow along here.  Warning:  It gets real. 

       This world is not our home, not built for eternity.  No matter what your scientific beliefs and the billions, millions, or thousands of years you think it's been since creation, it is still not made to last forever.  A new world is coming.  Sometime, somewhere, Jesus comes back and we get to chill with him in that new place that will bring peace and calm and the end of everything we fight against.  Until then, we live here, on this earth and all it's magnificence mixed with all of its faults.  And when the surface shakes, those faults cause things to crumble.  In big chunks or little, the pieces fall down around and it feels like all we can do is watch with our mouths open trying to collect the fragments and hopelessly put them back how they were.

       Things fall apart because they were not meant to hold together.  Things on this earth are temporary and they will not last as long as we want them to.  That is why we can not put our hope in the things that are seen but the things that are unseen because the things that are seen are temporary and the things that are unseen are eternal.  Thanks Paul and the Corinthians for that.  When something falls apart around you, don't look at the pieces that fell, look instead to what is being built in its place.  When you are being made new it's not a cover job, it's not a paint over the old stuff to hide it from view situation.  When you are being made new you are pruned and renovated, ripping out all the bad and unneeded so that something else can be planted instead. 

       When things fall apart, in truth they are actually just being put together differently.  Let Him build you.

4.  When you are looking at something you know you shouldn't

       You can't unsee things.  Trust the girl who was convinced to watch the movie Candyman at a sleepover in elementary school and is still scarred 25 years later.  You can stuff the memories, you can learn coping strategies, you can heal fully, but you can't unsee.  That song 'be careful little eyes what you see' that you sang in preschool children's church a bazillion years ago?  That's the most Truth speaking song I know of.  Be careful little eyes what you see.  Be careful at what you are letting in. 

       Your eyes are the windows to your soul.  Your eyes can bring in light or bring in darkness.  Light fills you up and you can see Joy on your face despite the circumstance.  But (Matt 6:8) if your eyes is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.  If then the light that is in your is darkness, how great is the darkness.  

       Hear me when I say this does not mean turn your head at wrong doing.  This does not mean avoid hard situations.  This does not mean ignoring an entire people group who aren't doing what you think is right so that you do not "see" evil.  Your dedication to your human ideas of morality does not trump God's desire for us to be the hands and feet of Jesus.

       But, if you are looking at something you know you shouldn't, if you are allowing darkness to enter in, if you even recognize it and are trying to fight it on your own, I am praying that right in this moment there is a change in the way you see and that your eyes shift to the light.

In this ever changing, ever reinventing, more is better, flashy lights, look at me society around us there are an infinite number of places our eyes can settle.  There is lots to see, but where is the focus? 

Like Paul to the Ephesians, I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the Hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.  I pray your eyes know where to look and that there they will see light.  Pray for me.