Swoosh

(Photo: Jon Flobrant @unsplash.com)

“When the peace of God follows the purity of God's wisdom into our hearts and lives, it will affect those around us.”—David Jeremiah

One day, on a snowy morning much like the many we’ve had this week, I was cross-country skiing through a field near my home. The freshly-falling snow seemed to muffle all sounds except for the swoosh of my skis as they moved forward. But then overhead, I heard a loud “Whooo—whooo!” A beautiful owl, blending in with the snow and branches, was observing my progress. Wherever I went, the owl’s head seemed to follow, watching over every glide forward, pause, and work-around of obstacles.

As I continued on my snowy morning journey, I realized there may have been more to the moment than just a cool encounter with a beautiful woodland creature. And while swooshing in the silence, I thought…

When I grow up, if I ever really do, I want to be wise like that owl.

Someone who somehow sees life more clearly in front, to the sides, behind, and to the front again—all the time,

Who seems to know what to do, what to say, how to move, and also how and when not to do any of those.

Is that even possible?

Maybe there is a reason that the owl’s cry is “Whooooo.” Because much more than a beautiful thing to be grasped, wisdom is a Person to know and hear and obey…

“For the LORD gives skillful and godly wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding.” (Proverbs 2:6)

Maybe it wasn’t coincidence that the owl was perched high above me so that I had to look Up...

...Because when it comes right down to it, the beginning of wisdom that can be life-changing is leaning hard into the Source of all wisdom…“Reverence for the Eternal is the first step toward wisdom. All those who worship Him have a good understanding.” (Psalm 111:10)

Start there…and then look for God’s footprint, God’s breath, God’s love, in everything—the big decisions of life and the day-to-day, the forks in the road, and in the arts and at the games, at the jobsite, out in creation, and in conservations and observations at the coffee shop and at the recycling center.

Sometimes, it’s hard to find God’s wisdom in the news, but it’s there, somewhere, too.

And if I look and listen carefully, it can come through other people, 

Even those who see life differently than I do.

It’s especially in that dog-eared book filled with wonderful words of life...

“The teachings of the Lord are perfect; they give new strength. The rules of the Lord can be trusted; they make plain people wise.” (Psalm 19:7)

Amen to that!

But He not only speaks through the pages of that book, but everywhere.

Like here in this snowy field…if only I will listen.

Is that even possible?

“If you don’t have all the wisdom needed for this journey, then all you have to do is ask God for it; and God will grant all that you need. He gives lavishly and never scolds you for asking.” (James 1:5)

And I don’t even have to be grown up to qualify! Or an owl.

Just to remember, as the wisest Man who ever walked the earth said, ”follow Me.”

The world, even my own little world, will be better for it.

Swoosh….

Snapshots In the Stands

 That night when the older locals from my youth became me. (Photo: Heather Whipple-Simard)

Back in the day, when I roamed my high school’s gym wide-eyed and full of youthful enthusiasm, the younger me would look up into the stands and shake my head but smile at the older locals—regulars at the games who still enjoyed watching the hometown team’s game like they had watched it or played it many years ago. I imagined them beginning every sentence with “Hey, remember when?….” That younger me would think, “Geez, stop living in the past, you guys. Times have changed.” Because all smart-aleck me could see was a bright future ahead, full of who-knows-what surprises and goodness.

This week, the tables turned.

That once younger me was one of those older locals in the stands cheering on the hometown team. And in between the action, right on cue, one of the guys next to me leaned over and launched into, “Hey remember when?…” And it was beautiful. Because he described a childhood experience of growing up in our small town—a time when grade school kids excitedly raced downtown after school to buy snacks and then raced back up to the athletic fields to watch the big kids play soccer or baseball. A time when every grade was in one sprawling building on High Street and when there was no social media but when little kids really followed and looked up to someone—in awe of being in the same hallway with those huge high school kids on their way to class, and wanting to be like them someday.

A time when your heart raced when you walked into the gym for the first time in your life on a Friday night and saw teachers and classmates and a lot more of those high school heroes, and even the man who sold you the snacks downtown, and neighbors sitting and standing together to root for the hometown team. And out in the hallway, an unforgettable aroma of freshly popped popcorn, stale cigarette smoke on clothing, and a hint of spearmint gum or breath mints in the air. To this day, the aroma of popcorn at a sporting event takes me back like incense to those wonderful Friday nights.

The older me went to bed that night wondering why that is so, and why that “Hey, remember when?…” story had triggered something so deep, something beyond basketball games and growing up in a small town. It was not so much wishing I could go back in time, but it was realizing that it was a marker God had used in a young, impressionable mind to remind me later on in life of something greater and incredibly important—His undying faithfulness love and goodness through the thick and thin of childhood, youth and adulting, and the importance of community. Something so easily taken for granted.

That night in the stands was a marker of remembrance that was not unlike the stones that Joshua’s men pulled from the Jordan River to serve as a monumental reminder of how God had faithfully led His people across it and into safety… 

“Then Joshua explained again the purpose of the stones: ‘In the future,’ he said, “when your children ask you why these stones are here and what they mean, you are to tell them that these stones are a reminder of this amazing miracle—that the nation of Israel crossed the Jordan River on dry ground! Tell them how the Lord our God dried up the river right before our eyes and then kept it dry until we were all across! It is the same thing the Lord did forty years ago at the Red Sea! He did this so that all the nations of the earth will realize that Jehovah is the mighty God, and so that all of you will worship Him forever.’”—Joshua 4:21-24, Living

Markers like that, if only I will notice them, tend to show up in lots of other everyday settings, like basketball games, time and time again to drive a point straight to the heart where it belongs—to, as one pastor has said...

“Remember not to forget…Don’t forget to remember…

Remember to remember!”

Pay attention to the snapshots and photo albums from the past that parade through the memory bank—many fun, but some not. Because these are permanent markers to remind you that you need one another, and of God’s faithfulness in provision, guidance, love, grace, mercy (oh man, lots of that!), and getting through long desert seasons. As author Mark Batterson puts it: “The primary reason we lose faith is because we forget the faithfulness of God. Maybe that's why the word 'remember' is repeated 250 times in Scripture.”

By the way, I still have a something in common with that younger me (hopefully, a lot less snarky) because even though I often sit in the stands now, there is still a bright future ahead—one so bright, in fact, it has no end. But now, what that younger me didn’t know back then but was reminded of after being in the stands the other night, the way ahead while roaming this planet will have many more markers of remembrance that God will use like stones to inspire gratitude for life, and faith-building perseverance, resolve, hope, encouragement and joy for the road ahead. Markers that will shout:

“Just remember, you often won't realize you're making progress on the Journey until you pause to look back at how far you've come.”

Looking back after this week's snow, Old Dublin Road.

[ADAPTED FROM PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED, JANUARY 2020]

Key of Be

Getting the right perspective down by the river, Depot Square.

"All that I am, praise the Lord; everything in me, praise His holy name." (Psalm 103:1)

A timeless prayer…

I really don’t care if the songs are the latest and greatest

Or 20 years old, or 200

Each day, just help me to choose to pick up my harp of David

Even if that harp is a shaky voice on a cold winter morning

Seated or standing

And whether I feel like it or not

In sighs, in a happy groove, or ridiculously off-key—doesn’t matter

Just awake my soul to go Vertical

Let simple words and melody draw my eyes and heart Upward

Where they belong

Each note, each word, building a crescendo of faith

In who You are and what is True

To be reminded once more of Your amazing grace and endless love

Because this stubborn heart is prone to wander, Lord I feel it,

Every 30 seconds

Words ancient or lyrics modern, doesn’t matter

So long as they are life-fueling Truth and everlasting ropes to hold onto:

Great Is Thy Faithfulness…

Your Love, Oh Lord, Reaches to the Heavens…

Your Grace Is Enough….

But the greatest of these is Love

"So amazing, so Divine—demands my soul, my life, my all"

Every day, let me fill up my heart with these and more for this Great Adventure

Over mountain tops and through potholes, in sun and rain,

En route to the finish line…which really isn’t a finish at all

Because the song within will never end

But along the way, let me remember to exhale praise in every season

So I can keep breathing in deeply

The rarefied air of Your tangible presence in every step of this Journey

The rarified, pure, refreshing air that is like a brisk January morning

That is the mysterious, jaw-dropping power of Your Name

That Name…that alone can slake every parched thirst and dry season

That Name…that alone can reawaken awareness of entirely practical yet supernatural

Faith, hope, and love—wherever I go, even here

Alive in this time, this place, for one purpose only:

To walk each day with You in Your unlikeliest of mission fields

To sing to my soul of Your mercies for as long as I have breath

So that it comes out my pores

So that I may somehow reflect the Song that’s within to someone, anyone out there

Who maybe hasn’t heard it yet

Or feels adrift and confused in 5/4 time

Or, who simply needs to be lifted out of a minor key

To just… be.

“The way we perceive Jesus affects the way we live, and how expectantly we face our daily lives. If we have a huge and uncompromising view of Him, it'll lead to adventurous and exciting lives of faith.”—Matt Redman

[ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 1-26-14]

What If I Just Yell?

Photo: StockSnap @pixabay.com 

“Lord, teach us to pray...”—Luke 11:1

What follows was originally written a couple of years ago, yet it could very well have been written a couple of days ago. The stuff near the end that happened back then is eerily similar to what happened this week when a country that may not have been sure about prayer stopped what they were doing anyway to lift Up a young football player fighting for his life. The organic power of it all, without formality or pretense, and the amazing encouragement to millions that has come from it, seem to be on repeat as if Heaven itself is waiting, longing for us to 'get it.' Selah...

Sometimes, like the persistent widow, prayer can be fervent and repetitive in seeking resolution to a really difficult situation. It can go on for days, weeks, and longer, and while there are often increasing glimmers of hope, it can also seem the answer is taking forever. And you know that you know that God is in it. These are the prayer situations when, as in my life, two wise and respected men of God (unbeknownst that the other had said the same thing) encouraged, “This story is not over!” Keep at it. God is listening, God is at work. Don’t quit.

This is how you pray.

But then, Jesus lays out the “how to” blueprint for His disciples: “Pray like this: ‘Our Father in heaven, Your name is holy. May Your holy nation come. What You want done, may it be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us the bread we need today. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. ‘Do not let us be tempted, but keep us from sin. Your nation is holy. You have power and shining-greatness forever. Let it be so.’" In other words, keep it simple, don’t make a show of it, and don’t just “say” the Lord’s Prayer either, but focus in on the multiple facets of who God is in your daily routine.

Ok, so that's how you pray.

But then, there's Anna the prophetess, the widow who spent day and night serving God by praying and fasting, the one who had been so in tune with the things of God that when she heard Simeon speak into the lives of Mary and Joseph about their newborn Son—“My eyes have seen the One Who will save men from the punishment of their sins.”—she knew it was true. And so she went and told everyone who was looking for some good news that Jesus was the One they had long been waiting for.

In other words, it’s good to dedicate your life to prayer so that you can get God’s heart on a matter, and know that you know that you know, so you can tell the world the Good News. Who wouldn't want that?

And so, if you’re really serious about prayer, that's how you do it.

Except, there was that time when a situation comes out of nowhere that punches you in the gut with its potential ramifications. Everything within you says, “This is not going to end well.” Words are few. Thoughts are incoherent and spinning. There is no persistent praying, model praying, or dedicated praying. Not even close. Only a gasp, a yell of "God, help, please!" and an inner resolve that "God’s got this"—but that’s about it.

And a couple of days later, again out of nowhere, a dramatic, table-turning answer that no scheme, great idea, or modern technology could ever pull off. The only explanation: God heard, and God answered....  

After all these years in the Walk, I have come to the conclusion that I don’t know how prayer works. Just that it does. Prayer has no neat and tidy confining boxes because God in His great goodness doesn't have any either. And maybe, in all kinds of prayer, all of Heaven keeps cheering us on to stop sweating the method and simply cultivate this for every situation, big or small, in our everyday life...

“Prayer is what happens when the soul cries out to its Maker, and no matter what the words, no matter what the feelings, no matter what the method, when it happens, it is prayer.”

—Steve Brown, “Approaching God”

Fanfare

 

(Photo: runandbecome.com)

A song, an uphill variation on a theme, to the tune of “The 12 Days of Christmas”...

“On the first day of the new year, my true Love gave to me: one resolution…”

Not a jingle nor a silly tune nor anything lightweight... but an anthem!

Like Aaron Copeland’s floor-rattling, spine-chilling “Fanfare for the Common Man,” both in title and sound.

Turn it up loud and shout to your soul the one resolution that truly matters:

“Fight the good fight—run the good race—of faith.

Grabbing hold of the life that continues forever.

You were called to have that life.” 

(1 Timothy 6:12, Expanded)

Fight the good fight of satisfaction and contentment—keep running away from all other “gods” that seem shiny and bright on the outside but that suck the life out of you, and keep running to the One who says: “Open wide your mouth, and I will fill it.” (Psalm 80:10)

Fight the good fight against the voice of “I don’t want to,” but instead follow this one: “I leave the past behind, and with hands outstretched to whatever lies ahead I go straight for the goal—my reward, the honor of being called by God in Christ.” (Philippians 3:13-14)

Fight the good fight against wasting solitude and “nothing happening” moments, because that’s where Jesus found strength. "Follow Me." (Luke 5:16)

Fight the good fight to strengthen your heart of Love and make it your passion...more than coffee. (Luke 10:27)

Fight the good fight for carrying a positive attitude and words that overflow from that heart of Love. (Philippians 4:8)

Fight the good fight of gratitude. Period. (1 Thessalonians 5:18)

Fight the good fight against complacency. And keep fighting hard. (Galatians 6:9)

Fight the good fight daily.

Hourly.

Minute my minute.

Month by month.

All 12 of them that lie on the 2023 horizon.

At all times.

To the encouraging cheers from the great cloud of witnesses who’ve gone before.

Like Jonathan Edwards:

“Resolution One: I will live for God. Resolution Two: If no one else does, I still will.”

“The race doesn’t always belong to the swift nor the battle to the strong. It belongs rather to those who run the race, who stay the course, and who fight the good fight.”

—Carl Yastrzemski, Boston Red Sox and Hall of Fame outfielder