Sparkle Blind...

One day, my four-year-old daughter said to me with a giggle, "You're sparkle-blind!"

"I am not!" I insisted. "I see the sparkles in your eyes!" Hmmf. So there.

But sometimes she's right. I do miss the extraordinary sparkle that is hidden in the mundane junk of everyday grime and dust. I'm sometimes too busy with cleaning this and that and teaching this and that to just marvel at the sparkles.

So today I tried a little harder to see the sparkles. I think it worked. She came to me later, unhappy that I had not helped her with her paper dolls. I had promised to help put a paper diaper on a paper baby, you see. So I said, "Oh, no!! You mean that baby still doesn't have a diaper? Aaaaaa! We'd better run and get a diaper on him quick before we have paper poopies all over the floor. RUN!" And we ran into the livingroom giggling like crazy people.

I am NOT either sparkle-blind!!!

Sandpaper and Oil...

"Don't forget to get the oil changed," my husband said before he went out of town. I was thinking that maybe I should also get some of that Slick 50 stuff to add as well. It is supposed to reduce the friction in your engine and protect against heat damage, even after the oil is drained out.

Later that day, my daughter and I were working on a project. We used some glue and scrapbook paper to decorate an inexpensive notebook. The problem was, the paper peeled off too easily. So the second time around, I used some sandpaper to scuff up the surface before applying the glue. It worked like a charm.

I was thinking about these things with respect to people and the way we deal with each other. There are some people in my life who are sandpaper. They seem to rub me the wrong way every time I'm around them. I leave their presence with scuffs and abrasions. And there are other people who are like oil -- they slip in somewhere and make life easier, with their kind words, their encouragement, or their help.

Oil is significant in the Bible. It is used for healing, for anointing, for burning in lamps. Oil is extremely valuable, and it isn't surprising that there are miracle accounts involving oil. I love the story of Elisha and the widow from 2 Kings 4. He tells her to borrow containers from her neighbors, and she begins to fill them with the "little oil" she has left, and before long, all of the vessels are filled. I think the oil of encouragement can flow and flow and flow with the grace of God working in our lives.

But what of sand? This particular passage caught my imagination, and has been stuck there for awhile. Deuteronomy 33:19 says:

"They will summon peoples to the mountain
and there offer sacrifices of righteousness;
they will feast on the abundance of the seas,
on the treasures hidden in the sand."

Is it possible that there may well be some treasure hidden in the grit that comes between people in a community? I don't like it, to be sure, but those little irritations and scuffed feelings may serve a higher purpose. What else will soften up my rough edges? If I have the right attitude, I can benefit from that sanding, especially if the healing oil of love is also present in abundance.  

"I need your voice..."

Usually, the idea of being needed is not a pleasant thought in my mind. As a wife and mother of four with many other hats, I'm usually pulled in many directions at the same time, and sometimes I'm not too happy about it. I often feel like an octopus whose legs are being pulled in 8 directions. I have people stacked two or three deep just outside my personal bubble, and sometimes one in my lap as well for much of the day.

I felt much that way the other day when someone approached me in the hallway and said,

"Leslie needs your voice. She sent me to tell you."

It was one of those situations where I had obligations in one place, and desires in two others concurrently. I was committed to help in the children's department, if needed, I wanted to go the prayer meeting I hadn't been able to get to for a number of reasons, and then there was the little matter of choir, as well. It was a little different this time, though. You'd have to understand Leslie to get it. Leslie is, well, amazing. She's talented, funny, quirky, surprising in every way and a lot of other adjectives that haven't been invented yet. She has the power to make you feel really special with her smile. Hmm... not the usual tug I'm used to. I thought, "Leslie needs my voice? I didn't know she liked it. I feel special. What should I do? I mean, it's Leslie and not just anyone...."

And there is the other end of the spectrum to consider. As my husband reminds me, there are worse things than being needed. Like not being needed, for example. Nothing can grate on a person like being in a state of uselessness. It sinks in and gnaws at your soul like rats on leftover garbage. Don't believe me? Just ask any active, productive Type A personality whose been laid off, hospitalized, divorced, widowed, or any other number of conditions that render us unfit for the activities we used to enjoy. Ask the retired person whose exercise consists of walking to the mailbox and back everyday. Ask the couple who has struggled with infertility. Ask the one who has struggled with depression. Ask the grieving. Ask the single man or woman. Ask anyone who is trying to reconcile the dreams they once had for their lives with the reality of the today that doesn't quite live up to what they expected of God. Sometimes, I look at my life and think "What is wrong with me and what did I do to deserve this?"

If you're hurting like one of these, I have some news for you. Neither God's love nor God's power is made any less by your circumstances. Ephesians 2:10 says: "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."

You are God's art work -- his special creation. You were created to do good things, and God went before you, preparing the way! God has allowed you to be in exactly the situation you are in. In fact, he has made you an ambassador to the people who are around you, right here and now.

And God is completely amazing. He can send chills up my spine with a sensational waterfall or a melted red crayon sunset. There aren't enough adjectives to describe him. Are you delighted that the Almighty Creator of the distant galaxies has also crafted you, made a way for you, has a purpose just for you, that only you can carry out? He delights in your prayers, counts your tears, and desires nothing more than to be with you for all eternity.

There are hurting people all around you who need to hear that message, too.

God needs your voice. He sent me to tell you.

In defense of doubt...

There are those who say that there is no room for doubt in the church. I must reply that if there is no room in the church for doubt, then there is no room in the church for me. It isn't that I'm a terminal skeptic or one of those folks who must have proof beyond a shadow of a doubt. I believe that God is the Creater of the universe, I believe that Jesus died and rose again. What I have trouble with occasionally is that God is working in the lives of those who claim faith.

The fact is that in my life, I've been horribly wounded, not by unbelievers who don't know any better, but by Christians who thought they were doing the work of God. I've been bruised, battered, judged and left for dead in a pool of tears by folks who attend church every week.   What am I supposed to do with that?   

The saving grace is that Jesus is praying for us.  That the church works at all is a miracle.   And Jesus' words from the cross haunt me: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they're doing."   Ha.  The heck they didn't know what they were doing -- they were killing him for heaven's sake!  They knew exactly what they were doing.   What they didn't get was the significance of what they were doing.  They didn't see him as the Son of God.    They had eyes, but could not see.  

What I've come to understand is that there are two common issues to be addressed.   The first is a recognition problem.  We don't see Jesus for who he is, and we don't see other children of God for who they are -- for whose they are.  If we truly understood the depth of love that God has for the others around us, the enemies, the mean people who suck, then we could be more than the Pharisees who didn't see Jesus for who he was.   The second issue is to follow the advice.   How do I forgive the mean people, the child molester, the rapist?  I think it's interesting that Jesus didn't say "I forgive you."  He didn't say, in the third person, "I forgive them."  He said, "Father, forgive them."  He reached out to the edges of his grasp, took the attackers, and handed the whole mess off to His Father and made a big fat excuse for them -- "they don't know what they are doing."  

Hmmm...  [Sigh.]  When I can't yet bring myself to forgiveness, perhaps I can pass it along to The Father to excuse their true crime -- blindness.   Thank you, Jesus, for those words!