A New Beginning

 

It has been over 3 years since I have written anything for this blog. I didn’t plan it that way – it just happened. At the time of my last post, we were right in the middle of the COVID pandemic and struggling to keep our heads above water in an ever-changing lifestyle and increasingly divisive political culture. The beginning of the 2020’s was hard for everyone.

Personally, a lot has changed since my last post. In 2020, I had two adopted grandchildren; today I have four! Since 2020, my husband and I have moved and attend a new church. Our second son has met the love of his life and given us a new daughter-in-law. My husband and I have lost two more parents (my Mom and his Dad), leaving only one more elder in our family. My husband underwent a life-changing medical issue that included 136 days of hospitalization and skilled nursing facilities and, for a time, the imminence of his departure from this world. Today we are very grateful for his new liver and a new lease on life. After the long stall of COVID and my husband’s recovery, we have been blessed to travel again to explore new scenery in Hawaii and Glacier National Park as well as many trips to SoCal to spend time with our grandchildren. And I have reached the milestone of signing up for Medicare and regularly feel the effects of the aging process happening in my body. The last words I wrote in 2020 were Philippians 4:7 – “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” This verse is more precious today than when I originally wrote it because I have had new opportunities to experience its truth in my daily life.

It would be easy to focus on all that has changed in my life and re-define myself in terms of those things. But I would rather focus on what hasn’t changed in the past three years. First of all, life today is good; but it is still hard and might not get easier! Through every change and every difficulty, we have the opportunity for personal/spiritual growth and the option to choose joy in every circumstance. Joy will always be a choice, no matter what happens in the world or in our own lives. This is still what walking daily with Jesus looks like. The life of faith will always include both difficulty and joy, and we will always have to choose what to focus on. In his garden prayer before his death, Jesus acknowledged the difficulty but chose the joy of surrender. I want to choose to be honest about the difficulty but joyful through the process.

Another thing that has not changed since 2020 (and never will!) is that God is faithful. And he is continually giving blessings to his children even in the face of hardship and grief. This is a part of his character, and it is not possible for God to be unfaithful. He is motivated by his deep love for us, and he wants to bless us with gifts that are good for us (James 1:17). God is with us, he is for us, and he is in us! There’s nothing else we could possibly need.

Simply put, God is still good . . . all the time. And the lasting peace that he gives is still so much better than any “peace” I can find without him, because it is eternal (John 14:27). As I re-start sharing my thoughts with you in this blog, I hope you will be encouraged wherever life takes you in 2024 and beyond. And these old lyrics from a Michael Card song resonate with me as I begin a new year of walking with God:

“There is a joy in the journey,

There’s a light we can love on the way.

There is a wonder and wildness to life,

And freedom for those who obey.”

 

Choosing To Be Thankful

It hasn’t always been easy to be thankful this year.  The overwhelming changes to our lifestyles have kept us focused on our “rights”, our health. and for some even survival.  Patience is wearing thin among the masses; and lack of patience doesn’t naturally lead to gratefulness.

But while most modern-day Americans have not faced the continual testing of our fortitude until now, there were certainly generations before us who encountered much greater challenges than we have had in 2020.  And there are countless people around the world who are still experiencing worse things than we will ever have to endure.

 

My family’s visit to a third-world country many years ago forever etched in my heart a visible example of this principle of truth: being thankful is a choice and has little to do with one’s life circumstances.  As we lived in relative luxury during our short time there compared to our new friends and neighbors, we witnessed their hearts being full of gratitude and joy every single day we were there.  It didn’t matter that they lived in near poverty and were continually trying to recover from a devastating hurricane.  They chose to be truly grateful for God’s work in their lives and found joy in the small, everyday things.

 

We have the same opportunity – maybe even more this year because none of our lives have seemed completely “put together” in 2020.  Making the choice to be thankful takes intentionality; it’s far easier to give in to the negativity around us and feel sorry for ourselves.  But what our Central American friends taught us firsthand is what the apostle Paul wrote about in Philippians 4:4-7: thankfulness and joy go hand in hand, and the peace that comes from God is a result we can count on when we choose to rejoice and give thanks.

 

I don’t know what your situation is this Thanksgiving Day.  Maybe you’re all alone, or maybe you are with family or friends.  Chances are things are not “normal” for most of us.  But having a grateful heart doesn’t depend on having things a certain way; it depends on how we look at life’s challenges and whether we choose to see the glass half empty or half full.  Let’s choose to focus on our blessings – which are many – and not our troubles, even if they are also many.  And let’s not do it for just one day.  Let’s agree to be intentional about choosing to be grateful every day.  “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

 

 

 

 

The Winner That Matters

I didn’t expect to be in this same place again.  Four years ago during the last presidential campaign, I posted what I felt God had laid on my heart to say about the idea of voting for one of the two candidates.  It probably wasn’t my most popular post; but unfortunately little has changed in the last four years. 

 

You’re welcome to go back and read it if you want: https://faithmeanderings.blogspot.com/2016/08/to-vote-or-not-to-vote.html.  But here are the character issues I identified in the values, beliefs, and actions of the candidates then that we’re still facing in tomorrow’s election:

 

Pride and arrogance

Lying

Prejudice and nationalism

Anger, name-calling, and bullying

Self-protectionism

 

As a voter, I find my conscience troubled and conflicted in ways I could not have foreseen when I voted in my first presidential election just two months after turning eighteen.  Our world has changed so much that it is nearly impossible to decide how best to please God when I vote.  How can I vote for either candidate when both seem so deeply immoral in some of their policies as well as in some of their character traits?  There is no longer a clear-cut line between good and evil in America.  And it’s hard not to be concerned about what type of country my grandchildren will be living in when the time comes for them to cast their first votes. 

 

So what’s a Christian to do in a post-Christian, post-truth nation?  What does responsible citizenship look like when it’s time to vote in an election?  I don’t have a better answer than I did four years ago, but I think it’s still important to consider.  And looking to God for the answer is definitely a better plan than engaging with people about politics on social media.

 

Here’s the good news: if I am more interested in obeying God and trusting him than I am in anything else, politics and elections lose their significance.  No matter who wins or loses, God is still sovereign.  No one is in a position of power without God’s permission – even people who seem to be more evil than good (Romans 13:1).  And no matter how evil the world becomes, God is still capable of protecting his own and advancing his kingdom as he sees fit.  And guess what?  America’s future does not impact the completion of God’s purposes for this world.  Evil has already been defeated, and we know who wins in the end (Colossians 2:15; Revelation 19-22)!  I’m really thankful that my own fate and the fate of my grandchildren doesn’t rest in the hands of politicians, but is already determined by the King of the universe!  He is the true winner and the only one who really matters.