Skip to main content

Face Time



Confessions of a hopeless romantic:  I own a lot, I mean a LOT of dating books.  A girl inherits these heirlooms from friends and sisters that get married.  They were all given to me, and reading at least two of them is like a rite of passage for the singleton. 

I stand and laugh at the spines sitting pretty on the shelves.  I scoff.  I stagger and then declare, “You are no formula for happiness!”  Rather, I have learned more about pouring out my heart to God and in return hearing what He has to say.  This requires lots of hours on your face.  This means humbling yourself to the point of saying, "Father, teach me to delight in You alone  I don't want my fleshly comfort, I want Jesus."  Usually there are tears involved.  That’s where this relationship begins.  No amount of formulated books will bring comfort, but the Spirit of God Himself brings rest for my pining soul.   

“Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge.”—Psalm 62:8

Then, there I was in all my skeptical glory weeding through my bookshelves and I came to the notorious Lady in Waiting.  Dun-dun-DUNN!  I’ve been thinking about handing it down to further generations of girls (and no, I’m not engaged).  All skepticism fled the scene once I picked up ol’ book and read the quote written on page 250 (of the study guide edition, naturally).

“By rejoicing in Him, however, I do not mean rejoicing in ourselves, although I fear most people think this is really what is meant.  It is their feelings or their revelations or their experiences that constitute the groundwork of their joy, and if none of these are satisfactory, they see no possibility of joy at all.”
“But the lesson the Lord is trying to teach us all the time is the lesson of self-effacement.  He commands us to look away from self and all self’s experiences, to crucify self and count it dead, to cease to be interested in self, and to know nothing and be interested in nothing but God.”
“The reason for this is that God has destined us for a higher life than the self-life.  That just as He has destined the caterpillar to become the butterfly, and therefore has appointed the caterpillar life to die, in order that the butterfly life may take its place, so He has appointed our self-life to die in order that the divine life may become ours instead.  The caterpillar effaces itself in its grub form, that it may evolve or develop into its butterfly form.  It dies that it may live.  And just so must we.”—Hannah Smith, The Chrstian’s Secret of a Happy Life

I put the book back and said, “You’ve earned your keep."     

“And he said to all, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.  For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.  For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?’”—Luke 9:23-25

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tucker's Birth Story

Tucker Jason Rhys was born on October 30th, 2023 at 3:18pm in the afternoon though I say his birth story started four months earlier in June.  In June we were packing up our family and lives in Africa to come back to America for a year. With two small kids and me being six month pregnant, Steven and I still thought it would be worth the effort to stop in Paris for a layover and do a couple Frenchy things like eat a croissant and see the Eiffel Tower.  It’s a “perk” of the job I tell myself—every flight path inevitably goes through Europe. We booked tickets that took us through Paris and then onto America. After booking everything we hit a snag—Farrah’s passport was set to expire in September and apparently France requires three months of validity left on a US passport before giving a visa to visit their country. She only had two months left before she needed to renew hers. (I'm getting to the birth, I promise…) Up until that last week on our island as we were packing our bags ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Remember to Dream

Years ago there were days when I had more fun with the Holy Spirit.  I asked things of God.  I received answers from God.  I went to coffee with Jesus sitting across the table from me.  I watched movies as the Holy Spirit spoke things into my heart.  This is you...  My love is like this...  My justice is like that...   Then this one time, I felt the need to ask about Disney Princesses.  "Which princess am I?" I definitely knew it was true when He told me I was Belle.  I was a brunette Frenchie (at heart) and I longed for the life beyond the seemingly normal world I saw.  "There must be more to this provincial life!" was my theme song.  I also liked the idea of finding a brooding, bearded man in my adventures. Now, the talks with God have grown quiet.  It feels like I'm growing up...but not...because we will always remain children in the Kingdom if we have received it (Luke 18:16).  However, there is a very real...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Marriage of Intellect and Spirit

I feel like I have to play for both teams when it comes to the topic of the Holy Spirit.  This whole week Jesus has brought about events that are far beyond my own knowledge and way of doing things, but the stories come through a person that I deeply trust.  I trust her by her fruit (Matthew 7:20).  She is rooted in the Word.  It is how we know God, His character, His fruit, His voice.  So, why must I feel a fight between my intellect and following the Holy Spirit?  Instead of t-shirts for the Twilight movies, I feel like I have to choose a TEAM BIBLE or a TEAM HOLY SPIRIT.  Selah. So here I am.  What I really want to do is wear them both.  I think Jesus does.  If I believe the scriptures, I must believe the work and miracles of God with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and all its gifts.  I also find  myself on the outskirts of radical Christianity wanting to play along but feeling the need to appease my mind.  I ...
Post a Comment
Read more