Come......

Have you ever been invited to a party that you just couldn't wait to attend? Maybe all your friends were going to be there or last year's party was a blast, not to mention the incredible food and festivities. 

This year, whether you are invited to this kind of party or not, remember that Jesus has invited you to a feast, a party of unimaginable splendor. Laughter. Reunions. Feasting. It will all be there, including someone who has been dying to meet you face to face.

Jesus.

He's been waiting for you. Forever.

It won't matter that you're not perfect. It won't matter what you've done. It won't matter. Nothing will matter because He's taken care of it.  

Come.

See his smile. See his arms stretched out wide for you. He's waiting. 

Come.

Shhhhh...... it's okay. My arms are big enough for you, strong enough to hold you.

Come. 

Rest in my arms. Rest, my little one. My love. My child. Daddy's here.  

The Power of a Seed

Have you ever seen the look of excitement in a child's face when she talks about the imaginary and magical world she lives in? Whether talking about Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy magically leaving money under pillows, or imaginary worlds with princesses, superheroes, or aliens, kids live in a world full of possibilities.

Today I read Mark 4:1-20 about the sower and the seeds. It's amazing to me that a small seed can lead to faith, but that's how it happens. Whether you have faith in the Tooth Fairy or a belief in anything else in your life, it always starts with a seed.

Sometimes God wants to plant a seed of hope in us. It might be a hope for our future or a hope about His character, or a hope in the impossible. Whatever it is, we have the task of believing what God has told us. (How do we know if He has truly told us something? That's a harder one. Listening is hard, but fortunately God has given us His Word to make things a whole lot clearer and mature believers who can also help us discern if what we are hearing is correct.) Believing what God has told us is not believing other things. It is not believing what our circumstances seem like to us. It is not believing what others might think. It is not believing God is like anyone else, including our fathers or mothers or friends who have let us down. It is choosing to believe God.

When God tells us something and we don't believe him, we choose to allow "thorns" to choke the seed. So my question to you is: What seed has God planted in you? 

If nothing comes to mind pray, "Lord please show me what seed you have planted in me?" What comes to mind?

Isaiah 43:19 says:

"See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland."

The wondrous thing about seeds is that when they are allowed to grow, they grow. And, pretty soon that seed of faith is a full-blown belief.

The Art of Thanksgiving

Sometimes it's hard to hear the voice of God especially when we want something really bad. It might not be a material item such as a corvette, which we are apt to use as an example of what NOT to expect God to mean when He says, "Ask and it will be given to you..." We may have a hard time separating what we want to hear from what God is actually telling us. There are times when we mishear God's voice. Then there are those times that God has inspired us or excited us about something that is truly from Him. He has put the fire within us for the very thing that He would like us to do. Finally, there are other times God is simply saying, "Wait". Those are the hardest.

Oftentimes, I find that up until a certain point I am a good waiter. I can hum along and control my inner desire that wants to know something or get something right at this very moment. But usually what happens is that after a certain period of waiting, I begin to fidget, tap my fingers, shuffle my feet, while exhaling loudly, and then it happens. Watch out!

Depression, not anger, is my usual response to such a time. I might be fooling myself that I am patiently waiting for God to answer, but I have really turned that anger inward and have allowed myself to sulk in a sea of hopelessness. (Sounds dramatic, right?)

Given that we have just finished celebrating Thanksgiving, I know that a thankful heart does not sulk and demand to have its own way. How often do we actually try to consciously be thankful? Be watchful and thankful, it says in the bible (my own paraphrase). Being in the dumps of sulking or self pity or impatience can blind us to the very things right in front of us. There is always something to be grateful for, even the smallest things.

Today I am thankful that God alerted me to the sound of the school bus passing in front of our house and that Llewelyn told him she had seen me so that I could run down the block and pick up my kids...just barely. I am thankful for the cups of warm coffee that warmed me during the day. I am thankful that I got to work from home, and that I actually got paid for something today. I am thankful for moments of quiet and stillness alone in the morning. I am thankful for snuggles with my daughters, relaxing with my husband on the couch in a home with sleeping children. I am thankful that God's timing is perfect....absolutely perfect, and I am thankful for the here and now.

Why your glass doesn't need to be half empty or half full

We all know the basic premise that there are those in life who see their glass as half empty while others see their glass as half full. Back in 1999 I spent a year interning with inner city kids in Camden, New Jersey with an organization named UrbanPromise. Besides working at the East Side After School Program every afternoon during the week, we took a number of classes on a variety of topics related to ministry. One of the exercises we did radically changed my outlook about how each of us sees and perceives the world.

During this particular class we each took a Myers-Briggs Personality Test. Once our tests were scored we were split up into groups based on our personality profiles: Intuitive Feelers, Intuitive Thinkers, Sensing Feelers, and Sensing Thinkers. Our mission: spend 20 minutes in our groups writing about the object set in front of us: an 8 ounce bottle of water with about 4 ounces of water inside. Being a member of the Intuitive Feelers we discussed: the cleansing of our sins by the water of life, the new life imparted to us through baptism, and our thoughts about how Peter walked on water towards Jesus.

When it was time to regroup as a class, our group shared first. Next came the Sensing Thinkers. Here is a synopsis of what their spokesperson shared, "It's a bottle of water. It has ridges on the bottle about half an inch apart starting about two inches from the bottom. About three inches from the top there is a rounded slope that leads to a cylindrical opening about half an inch tall, which also has ridges on it. There is a lid on top of the bottle. The water fills 50 percent of the bottle. That's it. It's a bottle of water".

Are you a half full Fiona or a half empty Emilio? The world has a million ways of trying to shift one's perspective on the glass of water. Some would say, "Focus on the water that's there", or "Don't focus on the water that's not there", or "The water doesn't really matter".

In John 15 verses 9-11 it says, " As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete." Did you catch that last part? Our joy may be complete? Yes, that's exactly what it says. In other words, in Christ and through the power of the Holy Spirit our cup never has to be half full or half empty. 
 
For you Sensing Thinkers, Sensing Feelers, or Intuitive Thinkers out there please bear with me on this. I like to think of the Holy Spirit as the Niagara Falls of joy. God, himself, is the true water of life. Our reservoir of joy is like that half empty bottle of water. Yes, in our own strength, our bottle is not filled no matter how you look at it, how you spin your circumstances, or think positive thoughts. It will never be truly full without Jesus.

So, why not ask him to make your joy complete? It's as easy as saying, "God, I am empty. Fill my cup."   

Do not pass GO and other adventures on the way Somewhere

Have you ever played Monopoly and gotten the chance card that says, "Go directly to jail. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200."? 

When I think of my life, sometimes I live my life like a Monopoly game. I wake up, go to work, rush home, get the kids to bed, collapse into my bed at night, and start all over again. Coincidentally, I once found a piece of paper that Llewelyn had written on that said, "Wake up, get dressed, go to school, eat dinner, go to bed, and do it again and again and again and again and again...." (I know, it's sort of depressing to read this coming from a 6-year-old, but who knows maybe she was simply stating that her life and routines fall into a structured and regular pattern.)

As a typical New Yorker I have the New York stride and "I'm going somewhere extremely urgent" mentality propelling me forward with eyes narrowed and focused solely on my destination, as if going to the corner store to buy a carton of eggs was the most crucial event of the day. Unfortunately, this often means ignoring other people along the way, which we New Yorkers are so good at. Man with a tall pink mohawk...no problem. Strange man in a suit yelling at a bench....no problem...just move farther away as you pass by.

But, what if God wants me to stop? What if he has a divine appointment in mind for me, but I'm so focused on my own agenda that I don't hear him, let alone see other people along the way?

A couple of days ago I blogged about the verse, "Remain in Me." from John 15 and talked about remaining being a conscious effort on our part to ask Jesus along for the ride. So, as I was rushing off to a meeting this morning, I thought of this as I was riding the E train into Manhattan and decided that I needed to put my ruminations into practice. "Yes, Jesus, come along with me to my meeting", I silently prayed.

I was walking out of the meeting towards the subway, usual New York stride and "I'm going somewhere extremely urgent" mentality, when I passed someone I recognized on the street. I actually slowed down about 20 feet after I passed him and debated whether I should approach him. You see, it was a homeless man that Jonathan and I used to know from way back during our days as graduate students at Columbia. There he was standing at the street corner, a 6'1 or 6'2 African-American man who was sometimes sober and sometimes not. He looked thinner and cleaner than I remembered him. I remembered how he used to greet us with a deep rumbling, "Hey Baby" when we handed him one or two bucks so he could buy some food. After standing there pondering all of these thoughts, which probably amounted to a few seconds, I finally uttered a silent prayer, "Should I go talk to him, God?". I heard, "YES."

As I approached our old friend, I said, "Hi. How are you? Do you remember me? My husband and I used to see you all the time when we lived here. It's probably been like 9 or 10 years since I've seen you. How have you been?" He didn't seem to recognize me, but said he was doing fine. When asked about what he's been up to since I last saw him and whether he's been working, he said, "Well I'm in a program to help me get my life back together again." We continued to chit chat a few more minutes. I'm not exactly sure what compelled me to ask him, but I asked him if he is a Christian and he said he is. When I finally thought to ask him his name before we said our goodbyes, it was like hearing the name of someone you used to know and all the bits and pieces of those memories coming together. Kenny.

As I walked away from Kenny, I felt so much joy in speaking with him and hearing about his life. I don't know the reason God wanted me to stop and talk to Kenny. But what I do know is, asking Jesus along for the ride today was the most God-filled joyful adventure I've had in a long time!

Hello...do you hear me?

Hello!

Welcome to my first blogpost! Thanks for reading, and I hope we can be companions on a journey together towards hearing the voice of God more clearly. I've entitled this blog "Hello....do you hear me?" to represent the voice of God, although I must say it is quite a good title for my first blog as I send this out into the world wide web, which truly has become exactly that. I believe He is constantly trying to speak to us, but we miss him because 1) we don't know what His voice sounds like, 2) when we do hear Him we doubt, 3) we don't want to hear from Him, 4) we are basically self-consumed or self-centered in our day to day lives.

I would like to de-mystify what it means to hear God. How? By deliberately seeking His voice and sharing my experiences with you. This is a journey. So let's get started.

Day 1:
I started my time, through prayer and singing a few songs on the guitar. As I was finished singing, focusing on my words, I sat in silence and felt prompted to open up my bible and came to the verses we were instructed to meditate on this week from our house church meeting on Sunday, John 15: 1-15.

The verses that impacted me were, "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love." Did you get that? Wow. Do you ever read something in the bible and it impacts you, almost like the words themselves are highlighted in yellow or remain in your head like a one of those pesky internet ads that won't go away? Well, this is exactly how I felt when I read, "Now remain in my love."

What does it mean to remain in His love for me? Well....to me it means the same as "Stay with me." It's like living in a bubble of God's Presence where ever you go....on the subway, to the grocery, in your car. Yes, the Holy Spirit is always with us, but do we invite Him for the ride? It also says to me, "Don't go alone." Isn't that comforting. It's like God saying, "I want to come along for the ride. Let's go together.... Let's go together to your job interview....Let's go together to the DMV....Let's go."

It also means that we don't allow other things to remain with us.....Anger...pity...pride....impatience. It means we listen to our Friend as we go here and there, seeing the world and our circumstances through the lens of faith.

The first song I sang this morning was, How He Loves. Have a listen. Hear the words. He loves you and wants to be with you always! Can you shout it from the mountain tops? Yes, I believe. I choose to believe in the miraculous love, the amazing love, the unfathomable love of our Father. Yes, He loves ME...and HE LOVES YOU!

I'd like to leave with you one other verse that impacted me this morning and from which I have chosen the name for my blog: Radiantfaith,

I sought the LORD and he answered me;
He delivered me from all my fears.
Those who look to him are radiant,
their faces are never covered with shame."
-Psalm 34:4-6

May you be ever Radiant as you continue to look to our Father and follow His voice!

Liz