Speak Life Challenge: Testify

Speak Life Challenge

A Measure of Success

Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.  Joshua 1:8

Lord, let me be successful by your measure, not man’s measure. Written in my prayer journal, January 28, 2015

I must confess. I struggle with feelings of failure. They are usually brought on when I compare myself with others or contemplate what others think about my life. I start to feel like what I have done or what I am doing doesn’t measure up. That I should have or could have done more with my life. That I should have gone to some of the places career wise that my colleagues did. I should have authored some books. Been a foreign correspondent.  Won awards for my work. That I am not successful.

When those feelings come upon me I have to remember what real success is.

Man’s measure of success is fame and fortune. Man measures success by your popularity, prestige and power. Man measures success by how many facebook likes you get and if your video has gone viral. Are you invited to the right places with the beautiful people? Are you known and your work admired?

It’s a natural thing. It’s the way we are wired. As people we want to be heard, seen and respected.

By man’s measure most of us fall short.

But even folks who we think are successful because they have more money than they can spend can be miserable. They may be popular and surrounded by people and still be lonely and depressed. They can be successful by the world’s measure and still overdose on drugs.

The dictionary defines success as the accomplishment of an aim or purpose.  I believe that true success is fulfilling your divine purpose.

 What is our purpose? Ultimately, our purpose is to know God and look like His Son. But how that plays out individually varies. Different seasons may entail different tasks and assignments. But it is always the same purpose. To glorify God.  To show evidence of who He is.

The study notes in my Bible about the prophet Jeremiah say, “Success must never be measured by popularity, fame or fortune, for these are temporal measures…God measures our success with the yardsticks of obedience, faithfulness and righteousness. If you are faithfully doing the work God gives you, you are successful in his eyes.”

In the world’s eyes the prophet Jeremiah, John the Baptist and the Apostle Paul were miserable failures. Yet, we know that they were extremely successful because they did God’s will. Those are they eyes that matter most--God’s eyes.

When you are faithfully pursuing God’s purpose, you may not see all of the results in this life. People may not understand what you’re doing. You may be a failure in some eyes. Some results we won’t see until eternity. But keep working. Keep trusting God. Keep believing.

God’s measuring stick is the only one that really matters.

Soul Food

January 11, 2015

I’m in a nostalgic kind of mood

Thinking about soul food

Mother Green’s rolls

Christmas at Chew’s

Tables laden with food

Macaroni and cheese

Greens

Black-eyed peas

Potato salad

Homemade cakes and pies

A veritable feast for the eyes

Bobby Shelby’s brisket

And a buffet of food

On kitchen counters

Card tables

Soul food

Christmas breakfast at the Gray’s

How did so many folks get into that small room?

The best food in the world

Soul food

Food from the soul to the soul

Mixed with tears and laughter

Recipes passed down from slaves

Made with love by folks who knew

How to make a feast from just a few

Scraps and leftovers

Memories

Community

Soul food

When there was a table for the kids

And they treated their elders with respect

Instead of terror

And adults acted like grown folks

A different era

Red Kool-Aid

Frappe punch

Watergate salad

In the church basement

A time when families like the Watsons were honored

To open their home for a late-night spread

After the revival

Houses filled with scents that were heaven sent

Soul food

Seasoned with love

And prepared with care

Like Mother Green’s coconut cream pies

Long ago ingested

But still alive

In my memory

My soul cries

For those days of old

More than just the food

The Gathering

Love

Family

Community

The Memory

Soul Food

Love Lifted Me

“He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters.” 

Psalm 18:16

When I was about five years old, my mother enrolled me in swimming lessons at the Y. No problem. I was a great swimmer—in my bathtub. I would “swim” in the tub, kicking my legs and practicing my stroke.

 When the day of my first lesson arrived, I remember being in line and some of the other children in front of me jumping into the pool. In hindsight, they must have already known how to swim. No problem. I did too, or so I thought in my five-year-old mind.

I confidently leaped into the pool. I soon discovered a swimming pool is not a bathtub and also that I could not swim.

Some 40 years later, I can still remember sinking, drowning, knowing I was in trouble. Deep trouble. The world was silent. I remember looking up and all I saw was water swirling above me like I was in the middle and at the bottom of a tornado.

Then I saw a hand, a large white hand, reach down. The hand grabbed me by the back of my swimsuit and lifted me out of the water.  I could hear the screams of the mothers who sat on the bleachers on the side. I had been rescued by the instructor. I was back. I was saved.

Have you ever been in deep water? Have the situations in your life threatened to drown you. The world seems silent and you are alone. Are you sinking now? Sinking into depression or despair.

Sometimes we think we can handle life but we have been in the bathtub, not the pool. When we get into the pool, we realize the water is too deep and we are unprepared. The circumstances of life can consume us. Sometimes they are circumstances beyond our control. Sometimes they are a result of our choices. Whatever the case, we are headed for destruction and death.

The truth is we were all drowning--drowning in sin.

The hymn “Love Lifted Me” states it like this:

I was sinking deep in sin, far from the peaceful shore,
Very deeply stained within, sinking to rise no more,
But the Master of the sea, heard my despairing cry,
From the waters lifted me, now safe am I. 

Love lifted me. Love lifted me. When nothing else could help, love lifted me

God is up high but He reached down low and took hold of me one day. He saved me from my sin. I was on my way to death and hell. But God’s love lifted me, just like my swim instructor. His love lifted me because He loved the world so much that He sent His only begotten son, that whosoever believes in Jesus the Christ, shall not perish, but have everlasting life.

If you feel like you’re in deep water, look up. God is willing and able to pick you up. He will do it in amazing ways. He loves you.

A Charlie Brown Christmas

My Christmas tree this year reminds me of the Christmas tree in one of my favorite holiday specials. In the classic holiday television special “A Charlie Brown Christmas”, Charlie Brown is dismayed and depressed by the over-commercialization of Christmas and struggles to find the real meaning of Christmas. Charlie Brown visits Lucy’s psychiatry booth and she suggests that he direct the school play.

To set the proper mood for the production, Charlie Brown picks the only real tree on the lot—a poor little sapling.

My Christmas tree is artificial this year. I love real Christmas trees. Usually six feet tall or more. I love the aroma of a real tree. I enjoy pulling out the Christmas ornaments—memories of Christmas past--and decorating the tree. I love the lights and putting the candy canes on the boughs and the star on top. We bought an artificial tree when my husband had a fellowship at the University of Michigan because we were living in family housing and the campus didn’t allow real trees for the holidays. But my artificial tree was still about six feet.

This summer, my basement flooded and the artificial tree went out with a host of other things in my basement that were submerged. I couldn’t transport a real tree this year so I set out, like Charlie Brown, to find an artificial one.

I waited a bit too late for my quest , the best tree I could find, without paying an arm and a leg or spending more time or energy than I wanted, was a four-foot artificial one at WalMart.

When I got home and set it up my daughter measured it, certain that it couldn’t really be four feet tall. It looked so tiny. My son kept saying, “It’s so little” which prompted  the lecture--similar to the children are starving in this world speech.

 “There’s a kid somewhere who wishes they had any kind of tree,” I said.

We decorated our little tree like the Peanuts characters loved on their little sapling, transforming it into a beautiful tree but more importantly, understanding what Christmas is really about. We put it up on a stand to give it some height. Pulled out the Christmas decorations and placed the star on top.

I love my little tree because it reminds me that Christmas isn’t about the tree.

 It’s about the baby. It’s about the baby who would one day die upon a tree for me.

It’s not about spending money, going into debt or stressing while shopping for the “perfect” gift. It’s about the greatest gift. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son…”

It’s about being in His presence, not the presents under the tree. It’s about showing love to people and appreciating family and friends. It’s about my son giving the cashier at Walgreens a box of candy he bought with his own money for someone else but right at the checkout line handing it to her after he heard us having a conversation about her having to work on Christmas. The surprise and joy in her face. Priceless.

So this Christmas will be a very Charlie Brown Christmas for me, enjoying the lights, sights and sounds of the season, but focused on the Good News of our Savior’s birth as Linus quoted on the special:

“And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.
And the angel said unto them, Fear not; for, behold, I bring you tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.
And this shall be a sign unto you: Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace and goodwill towards men.

...That's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown."

A "Yet" Praise

"Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will be joyful in God my Savior.” Habakkuk 3:17-18

Can you give God a “yet” praise?

Can you praise Him when it hasn’t happened yet? When you’re still looking for the buds, but all you see is a naked stalk. You know that you have planted and you have watered, but there is still no fruit from your labor. Can you yet praise Him?

When you’ve had some failure. When you’ve suffered a loss. When circumstances don’t seem to be going your way. When you’ve suffered and the pain has been unbearable. When you’ve had to say goodbye to family and friends. When your storage is exhausted and your bank account is empty. Can you still say, “Yet, I will praise the Lord?”

When what I thought would be isn’t what it is. Can I yet praise Him?

Yet: nevertheless, even still, at the same time.

A connecting word between two phrases. Two points. Two realities.

So even though it hasn’t happened yet (so far, up until this point) I will yet (even still, nevertheless, at the same time) keep praising my God. Why?

God is yet worthy to be praised. Regardless of my circumstances, He is still God. He is still Sovereign. He is still good. I will yet trust Him. I will yet believe. I will trust and believe in who He is. I don’t know how. I don’t know when. But I know in the end I win. The victory has already been won because I have believed in the Son. He will work out. But in the meantime and in between time, I will rejoice because He is Lord and He is Savior.

I will be joyful in God my Savior because my joy is not based on happenings but on who He is.

Leaving a Legacy

The memory of the righteous will be a blessing, but the name of the wicked will rot. Proverbs 10:7 (NIV)

Yesterday I went to a prayer breakfast and I thought about a friend.

Years ago, my husband filmed Jenny’s testimony at the prayer breakfast. She was fighting cancer, but she still had a testimony of God’s goodness. This morning as I thought of Jenny, I thought about how beautiful she was. How she always had a smile when I saw her, even when cancer had decimated her body. How much she loved the Lord, her daughter, her friends, her church. How she was always so encouraging to me. How beautiful she was, yes, physically, but how beautiful her heart was. How she touched so many lives in even her relatively short one.

I thought about how before she died I went to the hospital room and she was surrounded by friends and family--one of her best friends by her bedside fanning her. Her family and friends loved her deeply and truly and were there to the end. And I thought about how we all still miss her and how tributes to her life still appear on Facebook or through the event held by her brother in her name to raise awareness and funds for breast cancer.

Her memory is a blessing because she made memories that were a blessing. She lived a life that was a blessing to others.

I think the same thing about my husband’s grandmother, Florence Geneva Hagler, an awesome woman of God who also had a lasting impact on those around her. A woman whose memory is still a blessing.

I have felt a lot of loss lately. Loved ones leaving this earth. I now understand when they say when someone close to you passes away, not a day goes by that you don’t think of them. My recent losses have reconfirmed many life principles for me.

If you want to leave a legacy, live one.

It is not the material things that people will remember but the memories.

 The greatest life investment is pouring into people.

All the things we see will pass away. Only what you do for Christ will last. What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul?

When you are taking your last breath, you will not be worried about that promotion or how much money you have in the bank. The greatest gift will be to be surrounded in a circle of love of family and friends.

That is how Jenny made her transition. That is how my husband’s grandmother made hers. That is how my mother-in-law made hers. And that is what truly matters.

You can pride yourself on your possessions, and it’s nice to have nice things and we are called to be responsible stewards over our possessions and use them not only to take care of ourselves and our families, but help someone else. But in the end, what really matters are people, not possessions.  The love of family and friends, not financial holdings. Leaving a legacy of love.

What kind of legacy are you leaving?

The Process of Perfection

For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.…Philippians 1:6

Sometimes I have been stymied from starting because I have tried to figure out the ending before the beginning. I want it to be “perfect” so I never get started.

But my Heavenly Father is teaching me a valuable insight about perfection.

It’s not going to be perfect when you start it. Get started and perfect it. Don’t be afraid of failure. Failure is part of the process to perfection.

Perfection does not necessarily mean without flaw. We have come to see the word “perfect” to mean flawless. But the word perfection can also mean the act of making something perfect. Perfection can also mean a state of completeness. Perfection can mean the highest quality attainable.

The word perfection comes from the Latin word “perficio” which means to finish or to bring to an end. Perfection literally means “a finishing” and perfect means “finished.”

Aristotle explained the concept of perfection with three concepts.

• 1.    Which is complete, contains all requisite parts (nothing to add or subtract)
• 2.    Which is so good that nothing of the kind could be better
• 3.    Which has attained its purpose.

The “paradox of perfection” according to philosophy is that the greatest perfection is imperfection. The argument goes that if the world were perfect, it could not improve and so would lack "true perfection," which depends on progress.

I’m learning to embrace failure and my mistakes, not as an excuse, but as a teaching tool and part of the process to progress and perfection (completeness). I’m learning to do it, get started. At least if you start, you have something to work with, edit, learn from or improve.

I praise God that every day, He is “perfecting” me, making me complete in Christ. He is molding and making me so that I can fulfill the purpose that He created me. I can’t let procrastination deter me because then I am depending on me and what I can do, instead of relying on and trusting in my Heavenly Father and what He is trying to do in me and through me.

I keep pressing toward the mark of the high calling in Christ Jesus. I haven’t obtained it, as Paul said, but one thing I do is press on. I press on to be “perfect,” not flawless but complete. Not without mistakes but striving for excellence. Learning from my mistakes and not letting them hold me in bondage to fear of failure. For if you fear failure, you’re already defeated.

This posting may not be “perfect” but it will be perfect if it fulfills God’s purpose. And what is my ultimate purpose? To bring Him glory.

I am glad that God told me years ago that I don’t have to compare of compete because I am COMPLETE in Him. He is able to perfect and complete me. “He that began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 1:6) God does, can and will finish what He starts.

So if you’re like me, don’t be afraid. God has not given you a spirit of fear but of love, power and a sound mind. If you're operating in fear, you're not in His will. Operate in faith instead of fear. Get started. Learn from the process. Grow from it. It’s all a part of the journey to your perfection.