Peace and Quiet

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

Romans 12: 1-2

We started discussing flexibility yesterday, and then today, I discovered that “flexibility” is even a topic under God’s promises.

Life can make us crazy, can’t it? Pulled hither and yon, one direction to another, so fast we lose sight of what’s right, what’s wrong, what’s good, what’s bad.  A dear friend reminded me today what we need to do when life gets like this. We just need to put on the brakes and STOP. Ask God where He’s leading us, which direction He wants us to go.

Sometimes, that direction may be upstream, against what everyone else is telling you to do. Sometimes, it may be in line with everyone else. But we’ll never know until we ask God, will we?

He wants us to be TRANSFORMED. The Message translates our verse above this way:

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 be 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 

However, as it is written:

“No eye has seen

no ear has heard,

no mind has conceived

what God has prepared for those who love him”

but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.

The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.  We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.

1 Corinthians 2: 9-12

I guess I’m still dwelling on preparing/planning/goal setting. This verse jumped out at me for today’s blog post.

How do you make plans? Do you pull out a calendar and fill the dates with “must do” tasks, events, chores? Or put it all into your Blackberry or online calendar?

What do you do about unexpected events? How does the unexpected affect your planning? Do unexpected events change your purpose?

I still have more questions than answers, so we’ll keep exploring. I’d love to hear some of your own insights - please share them with us.

For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Ephesians 2:10

It’s that time of year when we start analyzing the goals we set for last year - did we meet them? - and start setting goals for the upcoming year.

Do you set goals?

I admire people who seem to have a plan for everything. One of my cherished friends goes over goal lists with her husband twice a year to keep their family, personal, and professional goals on track. It’s such an admirable trait - and everyone can see the fruits of their efforts.

Unfortunately, I’m not one of those people who can do that. I find it hard to plan a trip to the grocery store - what if something else comes up that’s more important? I guess I have trouble with the balancing act - I tend to be too flexible, I guess.

Flexible and spontaneous. How do those traits fit with today’s verse - if God prepared good works in advance for us to do, then how can we be sure to do them if we aren’t focused on that? Maybe we can still be flexible and spontaneous - as long as we keep our eyes focused on Him and keep the prayer line open for His guidance in all we do?

I don’t have the answers. Just plenty of questions. But I do know one thing - He’s definitely not finished with me yet.

Are you a goal-setter? Do you make plans? Share some of your tips and strategies with us!

But you, God, shield me on all sides,You ground my feet, you lift my head high,

With all my might I shout up to God,

His answers thunder from the holy mountain.

Psalm 3: 3-4 (The Message)

We traveled this past weekend, returning home in the rain. I asked one of my dear friends and prayer partners to pray for our safety as we traveled.

She e-mailed that she was led to a couple of verses for us -

“He gives His angels watch over you to keep you in all your ways.” and “A thousand may fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand but it shall not come near you.”

Then, today, in my own Bible study, I was led to Psalm 3. The whole passage spoke to me, comforted me, lifted me. I thought about just sharing a verse or two, but why not the whole thing? I pray it will bless you and comfort you as it did me:

O Lord, how many are my foes!

How many rise up against me!

Many are saying of me,

“God will not deliver him.”

But you are a shield around me, O Lord,

you bestow glory on me me and lift up my head.

To the Lord I cry aloud

and he answers from his holy hill.

I lie down and sleep;

I wake again, because the Lord sustains me.

I will not fear the tens of thousands

drawn up against me on every side.

Arise, O Lord!

Deliver me, O my God!

Strike all my enemies on the jaw;

break the teeth of the wicked.

From the Lord comes deliverance.

May your blessing be on your people.

To God be the glory, great things He has done!

“They said, ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.’”

Acts 16:31

Today, December 2nd, is the anniversary of the death of my precious grandmother Nanny. She passed away many years ago, and yet still lives so much within me, and with our entire family.

Nanny was quite a character. As a child, my goal was to reach her height - of course, I didn’t realize that she was in reality only about 4′9″ tall - in my eyes, she was a giant! (Thankfully, I made it over the 5′ mark, but not by much!)

She could cook some of the best food you ever put in your mouth. She crocheted beautiful afghans and sturdy quilts. She would also give you - or anyone who needed it - the shirt off her own back. She was giving and loving and kind.

She wasn’t always like that. I admit that in my early years, she was a bit harsh and judgmental towards people. But as I got older, I watched her grow and mellow, becoming more like Jesus the closer she got to Heaven.

Nanny taught me many things over the years - the most important being prayer. Nanny taught me to pray about all things, and about everyone. She even taught me how to pray when I didn’t know what to pray. Funny thing - she never sat down and said, “This is how you pray.” Nope, she taught me how to pray by example only.

She prayed for me daily - I knew that without a doubt. After I became a Christian at age 22, she became a regular prayer partner with me - if I had a need, I called or wrote her about it, knowing she would pray. And she did.

The day she died, I knew she was with Jesus, and I couldn’t be sad about that. The hard part was knowing my bestest prayer partner was no longer here with me. I felt the mantle pass.

And I still want to grow up to be at tall as Nanny.