Farewell, Summer; Farewell, Blog

Last Wednesday was our final regular post for our first summer blog. We enjoyed the challenge of getting it ready every week, but we're ready for a change of pace as we settle into our fall schedules and become involved in other ministries. It's been fun to exchange ideas with one another and work together to provide thought-provoking articles that would encourage you in your walk with the Lord during the leisurely (at least in theory) summer days.

While we take a break from blogging, we want to turn our attention to writing. An informal group is just getting started, and if you are interested in developing your writing skills, we invite you to join us. Writers of all genres are welcome: fiction, nonfiction, interviews, memoir or spiritual autobiography, devotional, inspirational, children.

We want to provide a blend of encouragement, feedback, instruction, information, and accountability.

We will be meeting at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, September 22, at Schuler Books on 28th Street.

If you would like to come, or are interested in more details, contact Julie Link via e-mail (JulieALink@aol.com) or by phone (554.1596). If you decide to come, please let Julie know so they will know how many tables to set up.

Thanks to everyone who participated in our summer blog:

Margie Brady
Karen DeVries
Lorie Dewey
Angela Klinske
Teresa Lasher
Julie Link
Elaine Lohroff
Sarah Merrill
Jackie Rice
Dawnae Richards

Becoming His

Jackie Rice

You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. —1 Peter 2:9

To the people at church, I’m dependable. I pretty much always say yes, no matter how stressed out I feel at the time. I am pleasant; I try incredibly hard to anticipate needs and strive never to fail.

To my family, I’m the good girl. For as long as I can remember, I’ve focused on doing the right thing. It’s clear though, that I am not perfect.

To my friends, I say yes too much. I’ve made too many choices based on what seemed right at the time. I’m not always honest with them or with myself, because the truth can be painful and I have a low tolerance for pain.

I’m the girl who reads a lot but probably watches TV more; the one who has you over for dinner and doesn’t let you bring a thing; the girl with the answers and the plan; the one who freezes summer vegetables because the idea, not so much the act, of domesticity is appealing.

Sometimes I think I need community because I don’t know who I am without it. My identity is entangled in the mess of things I do. If I say “no,” or “I can’t,” or if I stop “doing” long enough, would I hear God's voice? Would I know He was there but still not know who I am?

More and more, I find myself asking, Why do I do all these things? How did I get to this place? Who is this person? If this line of questions seems a tad dramatic, understand that I’m building a story—a story of a girl searching for identity and wondering why it’s more often found in the eyes of her “people” than the eyes of her Savior.

In my head, I know I want to be a child of the King, a disciple of my Savior. Yet my heart wanders, continuing to search for ways to be the dependable girl, the strong girl, the in-control girl. It’s a constant battle between head and heart.
Perhaps I am afraid—afraid to let God reveal who I am; afraid to be who He calls me to be; afraid of what it means to be completely, entirely sold out, hands empty, without the reins to hold onto.

Who am I becoming? As fall approaches, it seems as if a new year is beginning. The temptation to be more, to do more, is ever present. This time around, I resolve to do less and be more. I resolve to please God and not other humans. I resolve to relinquish what I want to be so that I can become who I am at my very core—His. Will you join me?

Becoming Solitary: Alone with God

Karen DeVries

At the end of a Sunday service, I noticed a woman sitting alone. As others filed out smiling and greeting one another, she sat with her head down, looking sad and tired. Then I overheard a woman nearby ask her husband to wait. He gave a knowing nod, and off she went to sit beside the lonely woman.

A few months later, I sat in a crowded row in the same general area of the sanctuary. I stood with everyone to sing. Then I sat with my Bible open like everyone else. But I remembered that isolated woman, and that day, despite being squished in the pew, I felt her loneliness.

Thinking I was just tired, I urged myself to change my attitude. There seemed to be no logical reason for my feelings of being alone.

Alone can be a scary place. I’ve heard warnings about the dangers of turning inward, especially at difficult times. Yet that morning I left church with the distinct notion that God intended for me to be alone—not away from others so much as alone with Him more.

I consciously choose not to fear being alone. It would be okay to study the Bible outside of a Bible Study; to call on God instead of picking up the phone to talk with a friend; to sit on the porch instead of in front of the TV; to walk in the woods instead of in the neighborhood. Solitude would even be okay in a church filled with people.

At first, the quiet took some getting used to. I like good conversation and the background noise of TV. But after a while, I could hear the gentle voice of my perfect Father speaking to me. Not like in the Moses movies. Not like a telephone chat with a friend. But more like a whisper from the leaves in the trees persuading me to draw my eyes up to the hills (Psalm 121), to the heavens, to see above and beyond frustrating situations. I knew that God was calling me to be alone with Him and to make myself known to Him. I wasn’t to isolate myself from others, but I was to seek His voice above all others.

At the time, I didn’t understand why God would not give me peace about being involved outside my home as a Bible Study leader or a school volunteer. But looking back, I see that I needed that “alone” time to make necessary adjustments and important decisions regarding our family. The peace God gave me came from being quiet and living more simply.

In reciting Israel's history, Moses said this about the patriarch Jacob: “The Lord alone led him; no foreign god was with him” (Deuteronomy 32:12).

“Foreign gods“ in the form of busyness or seeking human advice could have distracted me from God's direction. I am grateful that He taught me to be alone with Him so that He alone could lead me.

Do you need to accept a time of solitude so that God can show you the direction He wants you to go?

Becoming Hospitable

Julie Ackerman Link

Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it. —Hebrews 13:2

“I didn't realize until today that Mom's spiritual gift was hospitality,” said Jamie DeBruyn. Jamie made this comment to me at the luncheon following her mother's memorial service.

Over the years, Jay and I have been privileged to enjoy the hospitality of Ed and Nancy DeBruyn at their cottage on Big Star Lake. Whenever Jay was asked to sing at the chapel there, Ed and Nancy graciously opened their home and invited us to stay with them. Even when Nancy was sick due to the nasty effects of chemotherapy, she continued to welcome us and many others to their home.

Last spring, Nancy came to the end of her long battle against cancer, and God relieved her from her suffering. At her memorial service, everyone who spoke told stories about Nancy's ability to make even strangers feel like family. Although Ed and Nancy have only one child, Jamie, they have a cottage that has room to sleep 22 people. Need I say more about their attitude toward guests? After Jamie made the comment about realizing for the first time her mother's spiritual gift, she added, “She didn't even like to cook.”

Like Jamie, I too think of cooking whenever I hear the word hospitality. I admire my friends who love cooking and entertaining, and I'm amazed that they do it so effortlessly. I, on the other hand, have horror stories about my attempts to cook for company. When I compare myself to my friends, I fall so far short that I think, Why even try?

Well, the reason to keep trying is simple. The Bible says, “Practice hospitality” (Romans 12:13). Notice that it doesn’t say, “Practice hospitality if you love to cook” or “if you're a good cook” or “if you have a kitchen with double ovens.” It doesn't even say, “Be good at hospitality.” It says practice it!

Although hospitality is something we do, it comes from a state of being. True hospitality is the inevitable outcome of being “devoted to one another” (Romans 12:9).

One misconception about hospitality is that it always involves cooking and entertaining. It may or it may not. But it always involves loving. Hospitality is something we do for others on behalf of Jesus, and in doing it, we also do it for Jesus (Matthew 25:35–40).

The kind of hospitality the Bible refers to involves being generous with everything we have and sharing it not only with friends and family, but also with strangers. According to Smith's Bible Dictionary, “The good Samaritan stands for all ages as an example of Christian hospitality.”

To practice hospitality, we don't need to host elaborate dinner parties, and we don't need expensive china or a gourmet kitchen; we simply need to share whatever we have with anyone we encounter who has a need.

Over the years, Nancy DeBruyn entertained many people who started out as strangers but ended up as friends. As Nancy knew, when we practice hospitality we make friends not only for ourselves but also for Jesus.

Becoming Honest

Angela Klinske

"The righteous lead blameless lives; blessed are their children after them." (Proverbs 20:7, TNIV)

One day in second grade I had a friend over after school. She brought with her a small package of shiny star stickers—the decals teachers use on merit charts. I really wanted them. So when she wasn’t looking, I hid them under my bed. She left thinking she had lost them. I told her I would bring them to school the next day if I found them.

I never did confess, and long after she moved out of my neighborhood and out of my life I would find random star stickers throughout my room—in the desk drawer, under the bed, in the carpet—constant reminders of the wrong I had done to my friend.

Recently, I’ve been tested again in the areas of honesty and integrity, and it started me thinking: How often do we take from others what isn’t really ours? Whether intentional or not, how much we “steal” from others may be surprising to discover.

What about wasting time at work, taking others for granted, and even taking a few extra packets of ketchup or a stack of 20 napkins at a fast food restaurant? Isn’t that stealing too?

It may be easy to decide we’re not going to rob a bank, but what about taking supplies from the office? Or doing a poor job so that someone else has to spend their time and do it over? Or continually making others wait when we’re running late?

I recently took my children to a local attraction and purchased tickets for a tram ride. The driver told me it would cost $1 for each child, but when I got to the ticket booth I saw price the posted as $2 for children over 12 (my oldest is 13). I could have saved $1 and moved on, but that would have been dishonest. It wasn’t worth a dollar to cheat.

Yesterday, my husband and I were appreciative when the owners of our former home (which we moved from four years ago!) notified us that we had received a check at their address. That small act of honesty meant a lot to us. We know it was inconvenient for them, and we thanked them with a gift card to their neighborhood coffee shop.

Every time we take something that isn’t truly ours, like those shiny little stars scattered around my childhood bedroom, we scatter a little distrust, and our light begins to lose its luster. But every act of honesty makes our lights shine brighter, which, hopefully, will encourage others to follow our example.

Today, I ask God for the wisdom to help me make right choices so that I won’t take what isn’t mine. I’ll also express thankfulness to others who don’t take what is meant for me.

How about you, Reader, do your actions match your words? What are areas in your life where you might be “stealing” from others or from God?

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Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, Today’s New International Version®. TNIV®. Copyright© 2001, 2005 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com

Becoming Disciplined: Using Technology as a Tool; Refusing to Let It Rule

Sarah Merrill

Text. Talk. Tweet. IM. FB. Chat. Watch. Listen. Talk again. More FB. Email. Grab a bite to eat while sitting at the computer. Start again, but this time with the TV on.

Technology permeates my life. It shapes my day-to-day tasks and has, through repetition and habit, even shaped my attitudes and outlook. The mobility and availability of communication tools make news and information from the whole world instantly accessible to me. The result is someone who is quite well informed, but often impatient (particularly when technology fails).

My grandmother had a very different life. Is mine better?

Is it better that I can easily stay in touch with people I love who are far away? (Of course, yes!) Is it better that I don’t spend the majority of my time scrubbing laundry by hand? (Duh, yes!) Is it better that I can look up almost anything I want to know right when I want to know it? (For the most part, yes.)

What about the fact that I tend to stay in touch with people I like but not get to know the people who live on my block? (Probably not so good.) How about the tendency some people have (not me, of course) to ignore people right in front of them (Honey, not right now; Mommy needs to finish this email) to engage with others remotely? (Definitely not good.) Then there’s multitasking—emailing while talking on the phone while fixing my daughter a snack while watching TV. (Clearly not the best. Yet we do it anyway.)

There are other downsides to our modern, plugged-in world. Constant distractions of mobile communication hound us. Entertainment options of variable quality come at us from all sides. All the while, our ability to wait seems to grow shorter and shorter.

But is technology the problem? Does my web connection prohibit me from reaching out to my neighbors? Does my cell phone keep me from having a conversation with those in the same room? Do digital video recorders (DVRs) and Facebook accounts make me waste time? No, no, and no.

The problem isn’t technology; it’s us. We would rather be friends with people we already like than make the effort to befriend strangers. Sometimes we would rather call or send text messages than have an actual heart-to-heart conversation. Watching mindless television is often more appealing than spending an hour in private Bible study. Ouch.

Technology is a tool that makes everything easy. Sure, it’s easier to balance our checkbooks and to send pictures to our mothers. But at the same time, it is easier to procrastinate, easier to ignore those we don’t want to deal with, easier to entertain ourselves, and easier to do it all without even thinking about what we are doing and why.

So should we all unplug ourselves and be done with it? Not necessarily. When the basic problem is our own heart and motivations, the solution involves more than our toys and tools.

The solution is to keep our use of technology in perspective—and under the lordship of Christ. The apostle Paul gave this advice to believers living in Rome:

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. (Romans 12:1–2, THE MESSAGE)

God has put us where we are and has surrounded us with technological tools. It is up to each of us to use them mindfully for His glory and for the good of those He loves.

Do you use technology to shape your world or do you passively let the world use technology to shape you? Do you use technology as a tool or do you let it rule?

Are you becoming disciplined in your use of technology? If so, tell us how you use technology for good.

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Scripture quotations from THE MESSAGE. Copyright © by Eugene H. Peterson 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

Becoming Obedient: I can't... I won't... I will...

Lorie Dewey

“[A]nger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.” (James 1:20)

In a recent meeting, someone at the table commented that there are three “stages” to becoming teachable: “I can’t,” “I won’t” and “I will.” That really struck me. I immediately thought about all the “I can’t” and “I won’t” places in my life. The “I will” places were a bit harder to find.

I don’t know about you, but I see all aspects of my life as positioned by God to teach me, mold me, grow me, and lead me into becoming who He wants me to be for Him in this world. So when I come to a situation where I say “I can’t” or “I won’t” that's a place I need to examine. If I’m saying “I can’t” or “I won’t” to God, I am circumventing His good purposes in my life and in the lives of those who need me to say “I will.”

When our family moved to Grand Rapids we were able to hire a moving company. This was an amazing luxury and comfort because I was already working in Grand Rapids and was unable to help Tom manage the move. I returned to Massachusetts the day the movers came. When I arrived, they had already come and gone. I was relieved to find the house completely empty, but shocked to find the garage totally full!

“What happened?” I asked.

Tom replied, “I didn’t want them to take my tools. I thought we could move these in our truck.”

Our very large, two-car garage looked anything but packed, and Tom was consumed in a project of building a platform for the bed of his truck to create storage space for all the stuff we had yet to move. (Tom has a lot of tools.)

This was not part of my plan. I thought I was showing up to do a few hours of house cleaning before heading off to spend time with friends for a last good-bye. Instead, I had three young boys in an empty house with no snacks or toys and hours and hours of work ahead of us.

I called a girlfriend to see if the boys could play at her house while I cleaned and helped Tom. The boys ended up spending the night there, and Tom finished his building project about midnight. I was livid. I walked around the empty house fuming to God, “Lord, why didn’t he just let the movers take his stuff? We will never get this packed before the inspection tomorrow morning! And we have no place to sleep except on the hard floor of this empty house! I’m tired, and we haven’t even eaten! I’m done being patient! I’m going to give him a piece of my mind!”

Truth be told, I knew Tom was as frustrated and discouraged with the situation as I was. The project had taken much longer than he expected. But I was mad and felt my anger was completely justified. Just then (no lie, I couldn’t make this up), I heard the Holy Spirit speak to my spirit, “You know, my son has had a really hard day. He’s tired and frustrated. Would you go comfort him and love him for Me?” What?!? I can’t. I’m too mad, and he should be the one apologizing to me! I won’t. He deserves to know how much of an imposition this has been! “Yes, I understand,” the voice urged, “but will you?”

At that moment I had a choice. I could stay stuck (and miserable) in the “I won’t,” or I could move to the “I will” and be used by God to offer comfort to my tired, weary husband. I was overcome by God’s love for Tom. I went to the garage and gently said, “You’ve had a long day, honey. Let’s go get some dinner, get a hotel room and a good night’s sleep, and come back early in the morning to finish this.”

I truly could not believe the words coming out of my mouth! Tom willingly accepted the comfort. We closed up the garage, had an enjoyable dinner together, found a hotel room and got a good night of sleep, and returned to the house early in the morning to finish the project.

The next day I felt good knowing I had been an agent of love rather than an agent of anger toward my husband. How different the ending would have been if I hadn’t allowed God to move me to the “I will” of His will.

When I get stuck in the “I can’t” or “I won’t” places of life, I recall that experience and try to put my agenda aside and listen. Maybe God wants to teach me obedience and use me to be a blessing in the very place I am being obstinate.

Are there places in your life where you are stuck in “I can’t” or “I won’t”? What are they? Have you poured out your heart to God, telling Him everything you’re thinking and feeling? Have you listened? Maybe He wants to use you and is waiting for you to say “I will.”