How to dominate the smartphone before it dominates me

March 28, 20145 Comments

Apparently it’s a modern psychological condition, Nomophobia: The fear of being without your smartphone.

I have the opposite.

I’m no Luddite, no hater of all things technological or modern, but I have an overwhelming fear of owning a smart phone.

I just don’t want to be connected all the time. Sometimes I want to leave my house and not be available.

I don’t want to fall prey to those stereotypical smartphone pitfalls and gain convenience but lose the beauty of real relationships.

So for years, I’ve ignored a steady stream of phone upgrade offers from my cell phone company and cheerfully toted around my non-fabulous, plain-old dinosaur of a cell phone.

Most of the time, I forgot to have it charged anyway. Or I couldn’t find it in my bag. Or I left it at home. Or I had turned it on silent and forgot to turn it back up.

I didn’t know how to check the voicemail on the thing and didn’t text back when someone texted me.

The truth is, my introverted soul dislikes phones in general. Something about talking on the phone is an overwhelming social experience for me.

What do you say on the phone? How do you know when the other person wants to talk so that you don’t also start talking and end up interrupting them? What about awkward pauses?

And my least favorite….you call someone and they answer, “Hello…” and that’s it. So you wonder: Am I talking to the right person? Or did I dial the wrong number? Will I launch into a conversation and find that I’m spilling my guts to a stranger?

Then, when you’ve completed the phone conversation, how do you say goodbye without getting on that farewell carousel that just goes round and round until someone finally hangs up?

Okay, see you later.

Bye.

Have a good day.

Okay, see ya.

Yeah, bye.

I will do just about anything to avoid talking on the phone. I will write endless e-mail messages back and forth with someone, send notes via Facebook, or wait to chat face-to-face.

I will even put on a stamp, walk to the mailbox and mail a letter first.

Clearly a smartphone and I don’t seem look a good match for each other, this ostentatious, life-controlling, telephoning device and me, the hater of all things descended from Alexander Graham Bell’s initial great invention.

But last week, the cell phone company made me an offer I couldn’t refuse.

So I stopped hyperventilating long enough to call them up and say, this free iPhone yada yada yada (I don’t even know what smartphones are called)..is that for real?

The guy says, “Let’s figure out how much data you might use in a month…..what do you want to do with your new smartphone?”

I think of all the things I DON’T want to do with this potential technology tyrant, but I just tell him what I do want.

I get lost. Like, a lot. Pretty much every time I drive in my car, I get lost. I need to be able to look up directions and find out how to get un-lost.

Oh, and, I’d like to be able to look up phone numbers for places while I’m out and about.

Yup, that’s what I want.

I find it strangely funny…or perhaps absolutely perfect….that during the month of March when I’m choosing to Unplug, a new smartphone is on its way to my front door.

After all, there are choices I need to make now to dominate this device before it dominates me.

Maybe you do, too?

I will not fall prey to the tyranny of the urgent. Phone calls can be returned. Text messages can wait for answers. Facebook and Twitter and that endless stream of Internet information doesn’t need to be accessed all the time.
I will not ignore the people I’m with to interact with the people who aren’t with me.
I will remember social graces—make eye contact with my cashiers, thank the person at the desk, chat in a friendly way with the folks waiting in lines, listen to those I’m with.
I will know when to turn it off and set it aside. I don’t want to be distracted and I don’t want to distract the people teaching me, talking to me, or performing on a stage.
I will use the tool (the maps!! the GPS!! the Bible apps!) and not be dominated by the toy (Candy Crush, I have your number).

The heart of the discerning acquires knowledge, for the ears of the wise seek it out (Proverbs 18:15 NIV).

So, tell me all about it….What do you love about your smart phone? What are your favorite apps? How do you keep nomophobia at bay and stay in control of the smartphone? Fill this novice in on all of the details.

To read more about this 12-month journey of pursuing the presence of Christ, you can follow the links below! Won’t you join me this month as I ‘Unplug’?

Heather King is a wife, mom, Bible Study teacher, writer and worship leader. Most importantly, she is a Christ follower with a desire to help others apply the Bible to everyday life with all its mess, noise, and busyness. Her book, Ask Me Anything, Lord: Opening Our Hearts to God’s Questions, is available now! To read more devotionals by Heather King, click here.

After 9:30 p.m. Mommy Needs a Time Out

March 26, 20144 Comments

My daughter emerges from her room at 9:30 p.m.

It is now more than an hour past bedtime.

Showers have been taken. Teeth have been brushed. I have reviewed my daughters’ Scripture memory verses for the week, prayed with them, read them the Bible passage for the night, kissed them on rosy cheeks and sent them merrily to bed.

Or something like that.

But she re-emerges at 9:30 to tell me a play-by-play account of the book she is reading. She is a detail person. I’m pretty sure she is telling me exactly what occurs on each page of this 200-page book.

At first, I nod patiently and politely. I do, after all, love her. And, I do share her passion for reading.

Moms should be good listeners. Moms should make sure their children feel heard and understood.

After a while, though, I hug her close and slowly nudge her back to the bedroom while she is still giving a steady stream of book-narration, and I promise to listen more tomorrow.

Because seriously, it has been loud in my house tonight.

I have helped with homework for 3 children, fed and diapered and carried the crying baby around the house, made dinner, cleaned up dinner, packed lunches, supervised piano practice for 3 kids, sent 3 daughters in for showers and bathed one baby, combed tangles out of hair, folded laundry, read books, brainstormed ideas for a project on Ponce de Leon, prepped backpacks for the next day, laid out the outfits for tomorrow morning, signed agendas and math logs and reading logs, and threatened older children with punishment for any further bedtime delays.

You know, what moms do at night.

At one point, I had a baby crying, a child watching YouTube videos with bracelet-making instructions, one child practicing the piano, and one child asking me to quiz her on Life Cycles because her science test is in two days.

I know you all probably think when I’m in my minivan, I like to blast that worship music right loud and sing at the top of my singing lungs.

But you’d be wrong.

If I have the luxury of just 10 minutes in a car without a child talking to me, I turn the radio off.

O-F-F

Off.

Because, some times, a soul just needs some quiet.

Jesus knew it. After days of constant ministry, a needy mob following them around incessantly, clamoring for help and help and help all the time help, the disciples needed a change:

Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest” (Mark 6:31 NIV).

A quiet place.

Jesus knows we need that some times.

And it’s not just a break from noise we need.

We also need to come away with Him.

We need to not answer those e-mails, or check that Facebook, or answer that phone.

Our souls need beauty and filling up after relentlessly pouring out to others. We need Jesus and yet so often we choose to fill that void with anything and everything else.

But as Shellie Rushing Tomlinson writes in Heart Wide Open:

He will ruin you for anything else this world has to offer. However, it is a sweet ‘ruination,’ because the weaker the hold temporal things have on us, the freer we are to lose ourselves in the One who placed eternity in our hearts.

And here’s the hard discovery, that sometimes when I finally sit in relative silence, it rocks my restless soul more than any amount of noise.

That’s when I know I’m an addict, needing that next fix of adrenaline as desperately as others feel the shaking need for another drink.

I’ve become addicted to the rush of activity, addicted to the pride of feeling needed, addicted to the super-hero powers of rescuing people from crises all….day….long, addicted to noise and distraction and busyness.

So, that quiet falls uncomfortably on my shoulders. I fidget. I feel the need to hop up at the slightest distraction.

In my 12-month journey of pursuing the presence of Christ, I am taking time to Unplug in March, taking days off of Facebook, off of Twitter, and away from television, and this takes discipline.

I find sometimes that the quiet (in the rare moments when there actually is quiet) is awkward and uncomfortable.

And I find some times that the quiet is refreshing like an ice-cold lemonade after a couple of hours of yard work.

Either way, this is what I know—the quiet is what this soul needs.

Are you taking time to Unplug in March? How is it going?

To read more about this 12-month journey of pursuing the presence of Christ, you can follow the links below! Won’t you join me this month as I ‘Unplug’?

Don’t expect a laptop or an iPad for your birthday

March 24, 2014March 24, 2014Leave a comment

Laptop, iPad, video game, cell phone.

This isn’t my wish list. This is what my about-to-be-eight-year-old daughter will tell you she wants for her birthday if you ask her.

Seriously.

Her little second grade friends ask her for birthday present suggestions, and this is what she tells them. Not, “Oh, a Barbie would be nice. Maybe some new markers and Play-Doh. I like Legos.”

No, not reasonable requests.

Crazy expensive requests.

So, I tell it to her straight yesterday. Not even mom and dad will get you a laptop, an iPad or a cell phone for your birthday….so when someone other than your loving parents asks you for birthday ideas, think of something far, far, far, far, far…..less expensive.

To be fair, if I take her to pick out a present for her friends when they have a birthday, she always holds up the most expensive item on the shelf (an $80 Lego set or the $40 complete Disney princess collection or a $50 Xbox game) and declare that this is what her friend would like.

I explain that there are presents parents buy you. There are presents other family members might buy you. There are presents friends from school might buy you.

And there are presents so expensive, ain’t nobody gonna buy them for you.

You have to match the request with the giver. You have to know whom to ask.

And sometimes, don’t we all get this wrong? Don’t we carry needs to friends, carry worries to Facebook and Twitter, carry sadness to the phone and bitterness to the coffee shop?

But do we carry it all to Christ?

He’s the only One who can forgive and wash clean. He’s the only One who can care for our every need, deliver us, redeem us, heal us, and restore us.

Yet, there we go, turning to others first and Jesus last.

Why is it that prayer is so often our final act of desperation instead of our first response to trouble?

Why do we so often try every other possible means of escape besides God? And only after we realize that we have no hope in this hopeless and impossible situation do we finally give it over to Him?

Judas, that betrayer, collected his 30 silver coins. Maybe he counted each one, stacking the silver into a pile, planning his financial future.

But Scripture tells us there was regret. There was the deep conviction of sin.

When Judas, who had betrayed him, realized that Jesus had been condemned to die, he was filled with remorse. So he took the thirty pieces of silver back to the leading priests and the elders. “I have sinned,” he declared, “for I have betrayed an innocent man” (Mathew 27:3 NLT).

He took that blood money right back, hoping to be absolved of the heavy guilt.

And he confessed his wrong. “I have sinned….for I have betrayed an innocent man.”

There, he said it. He was a sinner. Jesus didn’t deserve that cross.

Shouldn’t confession have shaken the conviction right off his shoulders? Hadn’t he tried to take it all back, hand the coins over, and smooth right over that sin-laden path he’d traveled?

But the thing about taking our burdens to anyone but Christ is that no one else can handle them.

Those chief priests and religious elite took one look at Judas’s stack of coins and said,

“What do we care?” they retorted. “That’s your problem” (Matthew 27:4 NLT).

He’d rejected, denied, and handed over to death the only One who could have forgiven the very sin he now carried. No Pharisee or religious leader could cleanse or absolve such guilt.

Only Jesus.

No only that…they didn’t even care.

Do we do this? Do we expect worldly goods and other people to assuage our guilt, to calm our fears, to satisfy our hearts, instead of taking everything to the only One who can save and redeem and fill us?

The Psalmist gave this testimony:

For I cried out to him for help,
praising him as I spoke.
If I had not confessed the sin in my heart,
the Lord would not have listened.
But God did listen!
He paid attention to my prayer.
Praise God, who did not ignore my prayer
or withdraw his unfailing love from me (Psalm 66:17-20 NLT).

God doesn’t turn us away. He doesn’t reject our requests or shrug us off like they did for Judas,’ What’s that to Me? That’s not my problem.”

No, He listens to our prayers and does not withdraw His unfailing love from us.

So, we bring our sin to Him. We bring our needs to Him. We bring to Him our worries, fears, messes and mistakes, our everyday struggles, and the stress that keeps us up in the night.

He alone can save.

Giving Many Thanks, Giving Much Praise

March 22, 2014March 22, 20144 Comments

A little over a week ago, this unexpected envelope arrived in the mailbox.

I had this moment of confusion. Did I order something I’d forgotten about?

I had a moment of Christmas morning excitement, wondering: What’s in the package?

Inside, was indeed a gift.

A copy of my own book dropped into my hands with a letter from my publisher.

My own book? Why?

Then I read those words and gave praise…..Three months after that initial publication, they had done a second printing.

God sure can surprise you with joy on the most average of average days when you’re just going about the day-to-day routine and then suddenly grace arrives in your mailbox!

So, many thanks to you, my friends, for reading, for buying the book, for the positive reviews on Amazon.com, for spreading the word, for sharing the book with others and studying it in Sunday School classes and small groups at your church. You bless me so.

And all praise, honor, and glory to God, who is surely able to do more than all we can ask or imagine (Ephesians 3:20-21).

Thanks so much to the Women’s Bible Cafe, who chose Ask Me Anything, Lord as the March nonfiction book of the month for their WBC Book Club! If you are on Facebook, you can join me for a fun author’s chat on Friday, March 28th at 9:00 p.m. Eastern DST (8 p.m Central, 6 p.m. Pacific). You just need to like their page on Facebook and log in on that day and time to participate! I hope you’ll join in. I would be so blessed to chat with you!

Many thanks also to Reedswood Christian Church in Gloucester, Virginia, for inviting me to speak at their women’s tea on Saturday, May 3rd at noon. Please keep me in your prayers as I share! I’ll have books on hand that day to sign and sell.

As always, thank you, dear friends, for your encouragement. Thank you for your prayers.

All glory to Him!
~heather~

What she said on the mountain….and why I didn’t expect it

March 21, 2014Leave a comment

She stepped right off that bus and kept on going.

The rest of us shuffled off after the long drive and congregated silently on the sidewalk, awaiting further instructions. No one really knew each other so we generally avoided awkwardness by pretending to be busy getting our stuff together.

Not her. She pushed right past and flung her arms open into the cool October air.

She even spun around. I’m not kidding. It was just like Maria from Sound of Music only she didn’t break into, “The hills are alive…”

But she could have.

Instead, I heard her say it and it stopped my self-obsessed heart right there: “It’s so beautiful! How could you see all this and not know God?”

That’s what she said.

It’s the first time I really noticed her. I mean really noticed, more than the passing glance and distant, friendly nod in our college history class. We’d spent a whole semester together and I think perhaps by the end I’d at least learned her name.

But here she was, declaring the glory of God in the mountains of Western Maryland as we spent a weekend at a leadership retreat for college students. She was bolder than I had been all year, didn’t care what anyone else thought, just threw herself into a declaration of faith and worship while everyone else looked on.

I didn’t know about her faith, didn’t know her heart at all.

Sometimes we think we know what’s inside the hearts of others. We think we can tell—-who knows God? Who doesn’t? Who is close to salvation? Who is “hopeless.”

But we can be wrong

God isn’t. He declares,

But I, the Lord, search all hearts
and examine secret motives (Jeremiah 17:10 NLT).

He knows.

So, when we feel like giving up on someone and think no way will they ever believe in God, remember that only God knows. Maybe we stop that persevering prayer for their salvation because it just won’t ever happen, but maybe they are just one moment away from faith.

Or we think all this depends on us. Our words, our prayers, our testimonies make salvation happen.

But really, God is at work. He grants us this privilege to be part of His love for others, but it’s never all about us.

We just share our heart. We live out Christ. We love others like Him. And we pray.

We obey Him and trust Him with the rest.

And we can get all tangled up in worry over, ‘What about the people who never hear about Christ? How can a good God deny them heaven?”

But the truth is the same…It’s All About Him….and He is more than capable. He knows the hearts of every one of us, knows who is close to faith, who needs to hear the message, whose heart is made ready for the Gospel.

Rahab lived in that pagan town Jericho. No one would have expected her to be a God-follower, not a rescuer of Israelites or the one person in Jericho who was closest to salvation

She was a prostitute. Hopelessly lost, for sure.

Maybe that’s what any human would judge with all the external evidence we could muster against her.

But God knew her heart. He knew that of all the people in the city, she was the one person who heard the testimony of the miracles God had done and would think, ‘This is a God who I can trust to save me.”

That’s what she said in a whispered conversation with two Israelite spies she hid on her roof:

For the Lord your God is the supreme God of the heavens above and the earth below (Joshua 2:11 NLT).

She believed.

Who would’ve thought?

God, that’s who. He sent those spies straight to her door because He knew she would save them…..and He knew that He would save her.

He knocked down a seemingly impenetrable fortress of walls around Jericho, but kept her one lone house standing.

He moved heaven and earth to save a woman whose heart was ready for grace and faith.

This is our God with His heart to save, with His power to do the impossible and to share the Gospel with those who need to hear because He does not want “anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9 NIV).

Lord, forgive us when we’ve given up praying for salvation for others. Help us to persevere in prayer.

Give us a heart for others and the boldness and compassion to share our testimony and display Your love and truth.

Remind us that only You can know what is in the heart of another. No one is ‘hopeless’ or so far from You that salvation is out of reach.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.

There, I exercised. Now can I have a cupcake?

March 19, 2014March 20, 2014Leave a comment

So, I’m exercising to this video….

And the guy in the t-shirt and running shoes prompts me with these cheesy catch-phrases when I’m pretty sure my lungs have stopped sucking in air. All I’m thinking is maybe I can reward myself for exercising with one of those cupcakes I baked with the kids yesterday….

But then he says it…

Those shepherds didn’t have anything to bring when the angel told them to go see baby Jesus. They couldn’t give Him any presents, but they showed up with PRESENCE.

I’m out of breath, maybe a little light-headed, but he stretches those spiritual muscles with that thought. I forget about cupcake rewards or the number jumping jack that I’m on and I’m focused on this:

It’s not about what I bring to God, the quality or the quantity of what I do, my ministry resume or ‘success’ statistics.

It’s about presence. It’s about showing up day after day and moment by moment to be with Him, to commune with Christ in the daily.

I finish the video. Then I sip my water bottle and feel that thirst.

Funny thing about water. I don’t like it. I’ll drink most anything else instead of plain old water, but I push myself to drink it. I choose discipline.

And the more I drink, the more thirsty I feel. I start drinking my eight glasses of water a day and I feel thirstier than I’ve ever felt in my life. I can’t get enough.

Water. I just need more and more water.

I’m like the desert wanderer pulling himself across the burning sand in search of an oasis.

My husband says maybe my body was probably so dehydrated it had turned off the ‘thirst sensor.’ Now, though, it’s realizing, ‘This is what I’ve been missing! This is what I’ve needed!”

This presence, this time with God, in His Word, at His feet, in prayer, at worship, in my minivan, walking down Main Street, praying while doing dishes….Christ’s presence is what I need.

It’s what a parched soul longs for. That’s what David wrote when he pitched camp in the wilderness of Judah:

O God, You are my God;
Early will I seek You;
My soul thirsts for You;
My flesh longs for You
In a dry and thirsty land
Where there is no water
(Psalm 63:1 NKJV)

And the more I drink in Christ’s presence, the more I realize how thirsty I am for that Living Water.

We sing it in a chorus at church: Lord, I thirst for You. I long to be in Your presence.

I sing it in my worship time at home: Hungry I come to You for I know You satisfy. I am empty but I know Your love does not run dry. (Kathryn Scott–Hungry)

On this 12-month journey of pursuing the presence of Christ, I’ve chosen in March to Unplug, to take breaks from social media and to turn off that television. To replace the noise of the world with the beauty of Him.

As I do, I remember the promise He makes:

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
For they shall be filled (Matthew 5:6 NKJV)

Filled.

That’s what He promises to me. That when I bring Him my emptiness, the hunger the thirst, He will pour into me and satisfy and satiate even the most gnawing ache of starvation and the desperation of the deepest thirst.

But so often we’ve filled up that emptiness with junk and it tricks us into thinking that’s what we want, that’s what we need. A little quiet time is enough. A daily dose of a devotional and some Bible reading and we’re good. Who needs more than that?

Yet, the more I choose to exercise, the more my muscles ache when I take a day off. They long for the movement and the stretching.

The more I wrinkle up my nose and just drink that water down instead of choosing tea or juice or Coca-Cola, the more water I want.

The more I choose Bible study over TV and prayer over Facebook or I choose time in ministry or time in worship or time walking in the quiet over any noise, the less I long for anything else.

What begins as discipline and denial becomes joy and desire.

Maybe, just maybe, I don’t even want that cupcake…..

Wind-Up Toy Caterpillar Versus Four-Year-Old, A Lesson in Gentleness

March 17, 2014March 17, 20144 Comments

“Be gentle,” I tell her.

She’s cradling this tiny wind-up caterpillar toy, purple with polka-dots, in her four-year-old hands. Last week, she re-discovered it in the toy bin and declared that it was worthy of show-and-tell.

So, she’s waited with excitement all week for that one morning when she could tote it into school and show it to her classmates.

I slipped that tiny $1 caterpillar into her stocking two Christamases ago and here he is a survivor. More or less intact, he’s only lost one antenna.

But is he up for the trip to the school? Is he hardy enough to face one four-year-old and her 19 classmates?

I test him out on our coffee table. Wind, wind, wind and then I let him go. He inches across the wood quickly and my daughter giggles at the sight.

We scramble that morning to the minivan, though, all breathless with feeling late, feeling busy, feeling overwhelmed by the day and it’s not even 9 in the morning.

And I say it quickly to her because I’m a mom and I have to say certain things, “Be gentle. He will break easily.”

She nods like I’m such a worrier. Silly mom. As if I didn’t already know that.

I hear that toy buzz, buzz, buzzing during the drive. I hear her tossing that cheap plastic around in her hands.

And then I hear her, “Oh mom, he broke!”

Sigh.

I refrain from “I told you so” and mom speeches. I choose grace.

We arrive at the school and she finds the pieces that had fallen into the pile of lost fruit snacks, french fries and broken crayons on the minivan floor.

Then, I hold three separate parts of a purple plastic caterpillar and hope my English-major brain can figure out the engineering difficulties of a wind-up toy.

Somehow I manage to snap those pieces together. I test him out–success! And then I carry him into her classroom and set him on the show-and-tell table.

She flashes me a smile and I know I have earned my Super-Mom cape (and maybe some chocolate as a reward).

Later, she tells the whole story to her sisters: How mom saved the day by fixing him just in time. She pauses for dramatic effect and then says, “Really, Mom did that.”

I am now the stuff of Super-Mom legends.

But she leaves out one little part of the story….how he broke in the first place. How she hadn’t been gentle enough.

This gentleness with others, isn’t it what we leave out so often?

Paul writes it here:

Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near (Philippians 4:5 NIV).

We can can make excuses about how we’re just “honest” or we “just tell it like it is.” That’s just who we are.

We can assume the worst, lose patience, rage, condescend and degrade into sarcastic mocking.

Or sometimes we have this way of being gentle to strangers, but that harshness, that short temper, that criticism oozes out to the loved ones sitting at our own dinner table.

Too often, we know the weakness of the ones we love.

Our husbands. Our children. We are their protectors. We should be the healing salve to the hurts, treating wounds with tenderness and grace, overlooking failures, encouraging strengths, applauding efforts.

When we’re hurt, angry, frustrated, impatient, though, we tend to stab where it hurts most, highlighting faults and bruising the same feelings again and again. It’s our self-defense; we wound others when we’re wounded.

Yet, gentleness isn’t a God-request. It’s not a Holy Spirit suggestion or an option for good days that can be ignored on bad days when we’re stressed, tired, overwhelmed, or haven’t slept all night because we are, in fact, moms.

Paul tells us in Colossians that gentleness is the garb of Christ:

Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience (Colossians 3:12 NIV).

Gentleness is part of living Christ to the those around us, in our home and out of it. We are to wrap ourselves in it so others see Jesus in us.

“Be gentle. People break easily.”

That’s the message I remind myself as I put that wind-up caterpillar back in the toy bin after his show-and-tell adventure.

A gentle tongue is a tree of life,
but perverseness in it breaks the spirit (Proverbs 15:4 ESV).

The tongue has the power of life and death,
and those who love it will eat its fruit (Proverbs 18:21 NIV).

The words of the reckless pierce like swords,
but the tongue of the wise brings healing (Proverbs 12:18 NIV).

Gracious words are a honeycomb,
sweet to the soul and healing to the bones (Proverbs 16:24 NIV).

This is All His Story (A Lesson from The Theater)

March 14, 2014Leave a comment

Looking at that stage, you would have thought that there were 40 little stars in the show.

From gingerbread cookies, to a mysterious gypsy, from village peasants to silly hobgoblins, forest sprites, and a bridge troll who wants payment from forest travelers, you couldn’t tell at a glance who was telling the main story and who was telling an aside in the performance of The Story of Hansel and Gretel.

My husband says that everyone on the stage has the job of telling their story. Some get to have a name and some dialogue. Others don’t. But no one is simply there for background noise.

Every actor acts as if his character’s story is the main story.

But this is the life lesson that stings as it tramples down over our pride—We aren’t the main story in this world. None of us are.

This story isn’t ours at all; it’s God’s.

Chris Tiegreen wrote:

All of our life is a struggle between self-centeredness and God-centeredness. We know our lives are supposed to revolve around Him and His will, yet we have so many personal dreams and goals.

It’s not that our story doesn’t matter to God or that He views us as just “one of the crowd,” a random human in a sea of human need.

To God, each person matters. Each of us is a treasure. Each of us is beloved and worthy of sacrifice.

Our personal story always matters to Him.

But sometimes we think we know how our story should go, never considering how our life connects, overlaps, and intertwines with the lives of those around us.

This self-centeredness, thinking it’s my story and that God needs to bend His weighty will to my own personal plan, always shows up in my prayer life.

I tell God, “Here’s what’s happening to me and it’s yucky. I’m hurting. I need you to answer my prayer and provide…..and here’s how You can do that.”

I’ve given God three-step strategies to provide for me or rescue me. I’ve created mental timetables, agendas, and budgets and called out to God as if I presided over a boardroom meeting and He was the lackey in charge of production.

Foolish me, prideful me, self-centered me…I forget. I forget that He is always the main event. He is the hero. He always knows my need and the best way and time to provide. He knows how my story fits into His story.

You can pray for that specific job, at the expense of someone else who needs it and who God designed for it. Or you can pray for the perfect job God has planned for you.

You can pray for that specific spouse you want to marry. Or you can pray God brings you the perfect husband or wife at just the right time.

You can pray that God blesses your ministry efforts here. Or you can pray that God directs your steps to the ministry He has designed for you.

We bring to Him our problem.

We leave the solutions up to Him.

That’s how we yield our story to His and allow Him full reign over our life’s direction.

This is why Paul told us more than just this verse that we like to quote so much: “in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28)

The verses immediately before that say:

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God (Romans 8:26-27).

Then, yes, when we’ve allowed the Spirit to intercede for us according to God’s will, He works everything out for our good.

And not just for our good.

But for the good of the person to our left and the one to our right and even those so far off to the side of the stage we can’t even see them.

He sees us all and knows the perfect plan that will work for our benefit and for His glory.

But we yield our story to Him, we lay it low at His feet and let Him take center stage in our life, in our dreams, in our needs, and in relationships.

Trust the Director (A Lesson from the Theater)

March 12, 2014Leave a comment

Lesson Two: Trust the Director

She said there was a magic oven, a gingerbread house, a fireplace, an enchanted forest and a bridge to hide the troll.

We couldn’t see them, of course. Not yet.

For months, the cast of The Story of Hansel and Gretel interacted with an invisible set, pretending to eat an invisible house, ducking behind an invisible wooden bridge, all because the director told them, “This is where it’s going to be. This is what’s going to happen.”

And they had to trust her.

So it is with us. Our Director tells us to step here, walk there, and do this, and in so many cases, we don’t see the purpose or the ultimate design.

We have to trust Him anyway.

During those weeks of rehearsing with no props, no set, and no costumes, the actors could have assumed it would last forever and that they’d walk on an empty stage on opening night in their street clothes.

Yet, behind the scenes, there was a bustle of activity. A costume designer measuring, shopping, and sewing. A prop master searching for the perfect basket. Painting and building sets. Printing tickets. Prepping make-up.

Our God is also at work behind the scenes, even when we can’t see the evidence. Then, at just the right moment, He provides for our need and unveils the completed design He’s been working on all along.

Oswald Chambers wrote:

On looking back we see the presence of an amazing design. . . Be ready to discover His divine designs anywhere and everywhere.”

It’s in retrospect that we see God’s glory in our circumstances. Just like Moses, we see God’s glory as He passes by.

Moses entered the most holy place of God’s presence on that sacred mountain and with inexplicable boldness, he asked God to “show me your glorious presence” (Exodus 34:18).

Mortal and sin-plagued as we are, we can’t see God’s face. We can’t take in the fullness of His glory without falling dead at His feet.

Yet, God told Moses,

“As my glorious presence passes by, I will hide you in the crevice of the rock and cover you with my hand and let you see me from behind. But my face will not be seen” (Exodus 34:22-23).

What if we’re staring at our surroundings, straining to see God and we see nothing? No sign of His presence. No hint of His favor or blessing. No indication of his design.

Perhaps He has hidden you in the crevice of a rock and covered your face with His hand.

Then when He has moved in all His glory, we will look again and see where God has been. We will see what He has done by the trail of His presence.

In the meantime, as we squint our eyes to see the now-invisible glory, we take those steps of faith, trusting that if our Director says to ‘move here,’ we go even if we still can’t see, even if we still don’t understand.

When Naaman, the powerful army commander for King Aram, asked Elisha to heal him of leprosy, the prophet sent a messenger telling Naaman to bathe in the Jordan River seven times.

It was ridiculous. Mundane. Not a glorious enough miracle for Naaman’s powerful position.

Yet, after blustering about the foolishness of it all and complaining about how ridiculous it was, Naaman obeyed.

And that obedience took perseverance. He had to obey without giving up, dipping down in that river again and again, never seeing the healing until the seventh time he ducked his head down in obedience.

At any moment, he could have said, “this clearly isn’t working,” and walked away with the leprosy still ravaging his body.

But because he obeyed completely and awaited the appointed time, God showed up in His glory and healed him.

Like the actors rehearsing without props and without a set, we move where God says to move. We do what He tells us to do.

We trust our Director’s vision and instruction, and we do it with faith and patience, obeying without giving up, just as Naaman did. We obey with anticipation, knowing that we will see God’s glory as He passes by.

God Will Complete Your Story (A Lesson from the Theater)

March 10, 2014March 10, 2014Leave a comment

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Heather C. King – Room to Breathe

"He's solid rock under my feet, breathing room for my soul" Psalm 62:1-2 (MSG).

Category: Thoughts from my Quiet Time

How to dominate the smartphone before it dominates me

So, tell me all about it….What do you love about your smart phone? What are your favorite apps? How do you keep nomophobia at bay and stay in control of the smartphone? Fill this novice in on all of the details.

After 9:30 p.m. Mommy Needs a Time Out

Are you taking time to Unplug in March? How is it going?

Don’t expect a laptop or an iPad for your birthday

Giving Many Thanks, Giving Much Praise

What she said on the mountain….and why I didn’t expect it

Wind-Up Toy Caterpillar Versus Four-Year-Old, A Lesson in Gentleness

This is All His Story (A Lesson from The Theater)

Trust the Director (A Lesson from the Theater)

God Will Complete Your Story (A Lesson from the Theater)

So, tell me all about it….What do you love about your smart phone? What are your favorite apps? How do you keep nomophobia at bay and stay in control of the smartphone? Fill this novice in on all of the details.

My devotional for today:

Are you taking time to Unplug in March? How is it going?

My devotional for today:

My devotional for today:

My devotional for today:

My devotional for today:

My devotional for today:

My devotional for today:

My devotional for today:

My devotional for today:

My devotional for today: