The Benefit of the Doubt, or a Good Interpretation of God's Ways

I beseech you to observe this [point], though you should forget many of the others: Make a good interpretation of God's ways towards you. If any good interpretation can be made of God's ways towards you, make it. You think it much if you have a friend who always makes bad interpretations of your ways towards him; you would take that badly....

When God deals with us otherwise than we would have him do, if one sense worse than another can be put upon it, we will be sure to do it. Thus, when an affliction befalls you, many good senses may be made of God's works towards you. You should think thus:

• it may be, God intends only to try me by this,

• it may be, God saw my heart was too much set on the creature, and so he intends to show me what is in my heart,

• it may be, that God saw that if my wealth did continue, I should fall into sin, that the better my position were the worse my soul would be,

• it may be, God intended only to exercise some grace,

• it may be, God intends to prepare me for some great work which he has for me:

thus you should reason.

But we, on the contrary, make bad interpretations of God's thus dealing with us, and say, God does not mean this; surely, the Lord means by this to manifest his wrath and displeasure against me, and this is but a furtherance of further evils that he intends toward me! Just as they did in the wilderness: 'God hath brought us hither to slay us.' This is the worst interpretation that you can possibly make of God's ways; oh, why will you make these worst interpretations, when there may be better? In 1 Corinthians 13:5, when the Scripture speaks of love, it says, 'Love thinketh no evil.' Love is of that nature that if ten interpretations may be made of a thing, nine of them bad and one good, love will take that which is good and leave the other nine. And so, though ten interpretations might be presented to you concerning God's way towards you, and if but one is good and nine bad, you should take that one which is good, and leave the other nine.

 ~Jeremiah Burroughs, The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment, beginning from Kindle location 3087 (some formatting mine)

The above passage from my bedtime reading selection (for lo, these many months) reminded me of one more reason to keep counting God's gifts. When the "big things" in life seethe with turmoil and the heart's deepest cries seem to go unanswered, the soul can be sorely tempted to "make a bad interpretation" of God's ways. I know that place of waiting for the other shoe to drop, only to find it's raining shoes of trials. (Elsewhere in the book, Burroughs addresses that very tendency of trials to come in groups, rarely one at a time.)

For me, the intentional choice to focus on God's good gifts, even if they seem "small things" or "otherwise than we would have Him do," bolsters my trust that He is up to something good. Gratitude reorients my sinful predisposition to grouse and murmur towards praise instead.

Putting the best interpretation I know on the last 2 weeks, I thank You, Lord,

for You are good;

for Your steadfast love endures forever;

for the crown of life awaiting the one who perseveres under trial (James 1:2-4);

for the way You cause all things to work together for good to those who love You;

for Your love, from which nothing and no one can separate me (Romans 8);

for Your power made perfect in weakness (2 Cor. 12);

for the weight of glory wrought by these momentary afflictions (2 Cor. 4);

for strength, provision, and transportation for 8 medical appointments in 10 days;

for strength for extra church services in that same period;

for clear, united guidance towards a pain injection in my spine next week;

for Amore's recovery from weekend illness;

for Mom's doctor diagnosing and planning treatment for shoulder pain;

for Terza's cast removal;

for an all clear from my six-month skin cancer check;

for disappointing results from 2 recent medication changes;

for a timely sermon reminding me not to lose heart;

for hope of a new pastor soon for a faithful church;

for Mezzo's graduation celebration;

for a new dog in the family;

for a friend's newest son;

for a meal with Nonni;

for the first hummingbird sighting;

for a lone black butterfly in the garden;

for the first hollyhock in bloom.

For these things and more, I thank You, Lord.

(culled from the gratitude journal, #85-286)

Happy Mother's Day {and a Shameless Plug}

Whether you have children, want to have children, or perhaps are yet a child yourself, may the Lord bless you this Mother's Day with joy, strength, comfort, and a deep awareness of how much He loves you. Just you, exactly as you are. He delights in you, friend!

Would you prayerfully consider joining with Amore and me in blessing another family today? My dear friend of more than two decades (!), Kate at Songs Kate Sang, her husband, and their son and daughter are in the process of adding to their family through adoption. The whole story has been a miracle from start to finish, but they need God to show His stuff one more time by providing the cost of the adoption.

Because of our personal knowledge of this family, we have no reservations whatsoever about sharing this opportunity with you. In this post at Kate's blog, she explains ways available to partner with them in this process, including specific prayer needs. If God leads you to do nothing else, please pray for this family now. If you'd like to participate in additional ways, please stop by her blog and prayerfully consider how God might have you do so.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ

and the love of God

and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

2 Corinthians 13:14, ESV

In His Time

He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end (Ecclesiastes 3:11, ESV).

A few years ago, with my grandmother's birthday gift I ordered 5 rosebushes: 3 pink, one deep red, and one peppermint-striped pale pink and fuchsia. Most of them are the full, crinolined, English-style roses, which I generally prefer over the elegant simplicity of florist's roses.

Four of the five have bloomed prolifically, despite the pests which war against them. The fifth, however, possibly my favorite, this unusual variegated rose named for the Italian city where my sister once lived--this rose has not bloomed the past two years. When it comes to gardening, the division of labor at Wits' End is clear: my dubious specialty is gathering, trimming, and nestling flowers in jars and vases; Amore does the heavy lifting, sometimes literally, and most anything involving dirt or insects. Logically, then, when this Variegata di Bologna rose failed to thrive, I begged, wheedled, and cajoled him to do something about it. It was too crowded, I said. The other roses blocked all its light, I said. Couldn't we take a cutting to start for a different area and see if it succeeded there? I said. It's fine; it's healthy; just wait, he said.

Sigh. Ebony and I are not so much fans of waiting.

This year, this third year, with absolutely no change in placement, light, or water, the Bologna rose is laden with blooms. I can hardly keep up with deadheading and gathering them. The lemony citrus perfume and their stripes, as unique as fingerprints from blossom to blossom, make me smile every day. Actually, there was one change this year. For various reasons, the shrubs were never pruned back last autumn but left to their own leafy devices.

Crumbles, am I the only one with a few prayers like that? Prayers that leaf out but simply won't bloom when expected? Prayers that require years of water, sunlight, pruning, and fertilizer to no avail? I suspect I'm not.

When that happens, sometimes I beg, wheedle, and cajole my heavenly Gardener too. Granted, Jesus urges us to persistence in prayer (see Luke 18:1-8). That in itself is not a bad thing. The issue here, perhaps, is my tone of voice, which sometimes (or perhaps more often) assumes that I know better than He how life ought to go or that I love the one for whom I pray more than He does.

This rose reminds me that I am to persist in cultivating my supplications in faithfulness, with the promises of Scripture and remembrance of God's past works and eternal character to nourish them. However, I will also do well to relinquish my own efforts to manipulate outcomes or speed up the answer through my own efforts. Undergirding all my prayers should be Jesus' Gethsemane prayer, "Nevertheless, Thy will be done."

The Lord may grant some petitions in three years, some in three months, some in three decades. Some may never come to fruition in our own finite span of years yet stand as stalwart oaks in heaven instead of rosebushes on earth.

Lord, in Your great mercies encourage us to wait in hope and confident expectation that our prayers will bear good fruit in Your time.  Where our knees buckle and our hands grow slack with crying to You, send us a reminder, a new leaf or a bud perhaps, or a word in season from a brother or sister to fortify us. We cannot force Your hand anyway; forgive us for trying to do so and for the havoc we wreak trying to answer our own prayers in our own way and time. You alone are the God who hears prayers. You are the God who responds to our cries. Hear the longings of each reading heart now, O Lord, we ask You, in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you,

and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you.

For the Lord is a God of justice;

blessed are all those who wait for him.

Isaiah 30:18, ESV

sharing belatedly with Laura's Playdates with God community

Nothing {The Widow's Jar of Oil}

Now the wife of one of the sons of the prophets cried to Elisha, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the Lord, but the creditor has come to take my two children to be his slaves.” And Elisha said to her, “What shall I do for you? Tell me; what have you in the house?” And she said, “Your servant has nothing in the house except a jar of oil.” Then he said, “Go outside, borrow vessels from all your neighbors, empty vessels and not too few. Then go in and shut the door behind yourself and your sons and pour into all these vessels. And when one is full, set it aside.” So she went from him and shut the door behind herself and her sons. And as she poured they brought the vessels to her. When the vessels were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another vessel.” And he said to her, “There is not another.” Then the oil stopped flowing. She came and told the man of God, and he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debts, and you and your sons can live on the rest” (2 Kings 4:1-7, ESV).

Your servant has nothing in the house.

The interest on this threadbare tent of my sojourning is high,

Too high.

It has emptied everything I have and more,

And now there’s nothing in the house to pay my debts,

Debts of duty,

Debts of love.

My dearest bear the cost of this indebtedness.

            Tell me, daughter. What have you in the house?

Nothing, Master. Nothing,

Except—

Except this little jar,

This little jar of promises,

            Of truth,

            Of help for one more day.

So little.

It might as well be empty.

            Go, He says. Borrow empty vessels from your neighbors.

I go.

I beg.

I borrow.

I pour.

And—oh, the grace—their nothing

Plus my nothing

Is everything we need.

With gratitude for the friends from whom I “borrowed vessels” of encouragement and prayer Thursday morning

Creation's Song

Yahweh, our Lord,

how magnificent is Your name throughout the earth!

You have covered the heavens with Your majesty.

Psalm 8:1, HCSB

No parsley, but sage (far right), rosemary (back), and thyme

Mexican yucca

Pink evening primroses

Incipient blackberries

First larkspur

New herbs and vegetables and a wisteria bush

Some fragrance and cheer inside, too

{"Creation Song" by Fernando Ortega; to view and listen on the Web, please visit the actual post at crumbs}

Creation sings God's praise

Day and night, though cities quake,

Though the strongest fall.

Breathe in His beauty.

Lean on His steadfast mercies.

Cry to God. He hears.

He shares our sorrows.

He shelters beneath His wings.

He fails not His own.

Grace and faithfulness

Turn mourning into dancing;

Our Lord holds out hope.

**********************

Thank You, Lord, for eucharisteos pleasant and painful:

for a doctor willing to come in before office hours to accommodate a loved one's needs

for Mom's shoulder pain not requiring surgery

for stories on screen of Christian faith in action

for the courageous first-responders in Boston and West, Texas

for a friend's surgery success
for a brief visit to her home

for leaning on each other for prayer in hard times

for lunch with another friend

for text message grace

for a photo of two dear faces together

for roses blooming

for blackberries' sweet promises

for masses of pink primroses

for favorable weather this weekend

for Amore's satisfaction in dirt and growing things
for a better response to acupuncture than last week
for an evening visit from our neighbor, who came demanding chocolate and roses (She's 4.)
for kisses blown

for winged visitors to watch and hear

for starting over in a new journal and on a new One Thousand Gifts

for happy new things: cousin's daughter, Kate's adoption, Teagirl's puppy

for His hand holding me fast (Isaiah 41:10)

 for the pressures that drive me to You

for songs in the night (Ps. 42:8)

for memorial stones
(Joy Dare, #60-84)

O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth!

Psalm 8:1, ESV


linking to the Playdates with God community and the Monday Multitudes gratitude community today

On This Day in April

For April 18, 2013:

Outside my window...
It's damp and uncharacteristically chilly. 46F after a high of 87F yesterday! I'm not complaining, though. This is Texas. Hundred-degree days are not that far away.

I am thinking...
about a friend whose grandmother is in hospice, another friend who had surgery this morning, and my youngest sister on crutches for her ankle injury that just won't heal.

I am thankful...
for the gift of 26 years of walking with the Lord, and He with me.

In the kitchen...
not much is happening, but the first few small roses of the season sit in bud vases on the table.

I am wearing...
a long-sleeved shirt, cardigan, sweatshirt, and jeans, with the constant of tennis shoes and orthotics.

I am creating...
a new gratitude list, starting over at #1 yesterday.

I am going...
to take photos of the bluebonnets this year, Lord willing, when they finally bloom out. 

I am wondering...
whether acupuncture will really give the extra pain relief I desire and whether my ankle will end up in a cast like my sister's before long.

I am reading...
The True Jewel of Christian Contentment, still and slowly; 1 Kings and Luke; and Jane Eyre and The House at Riverton in audio format.

I am hoping...
my mom's shoulder injury is not as serious as the ER doc believed last night.

I am looking forward to...
beginning the new memoir Joni and Ken soon.

I am learning...
to trust my loved ones to God's providence and care, especially when that doesn't turn out as I'd like.

Around the house...
laundry is in process, candles need replacing, the heater and air conditioner both rest quietly, Ebony naps in "my" chair, and my Bible study things are spread out all over the kitchen table.

I am pondering...
the tragedy of King David's household and Solomon's divided love for the Lord, which we are reading about in Bible study. O Lord, unite my heart to fear Thy name!
I need to be pondering my new memory verses, Ephesians 4:11-13:

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,  until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (ESV here, but I'm trying to learn the NIV1984 version).

A favorite quote for today...

One of my favorite things...
meeting with my ladies' Bible study Wednesday morning. We are a small group this session, and my introverted self is loving that.

A few plans for the rest of the week:
nothing exciting or out of the ordinary (Lord willing) until a date with my Amore this weekend, church, and potluck afterward. Earlier in the week, I had an acupuncture session, grieved with everyone else over the terrible events in Boston, went to Bible study and lunch with one of those ladies, and celebrated my spiritual birthday with extra quiet and solitude yesterday afternoon.

A peek into my day...

Ebony chasing his lunch in his treat ball

Sharing with Peggy Hostetler's The Simple Woman's Daybook today

AcuPUNcture

Something about the latest chapter in My Life, the Science Project, specifically the new adventure of seeking acupuncture therapy for my chronic pain issues, has brought out the punniness in my family. In case that word is unfamiliar to you, that's probably because I might have just invented it. Here's a working definition:

punniness: noun, a quality or tendency to attempt humor by way of plays on words, poss. eliciting laughter from the punner and groans from the hearers

To save you having to ask,

punner: noun, one who makes puns

Don't say you weren't warned. Read on at your own risk.

Truth be told, I started the pun-fest with this text message:

Taking a stab at acupuncture Fri @ 10.  More to the point, acupuncture is taking a stab at me.

Allen continued it by greeting me after my second appointment with the words, "So I'm on pins and needles. How did acupuncture go?"

My dad may win the prize for creative acupuncture jokes so far with this text message last week:

I tried to water our bushes earlier but the hose had several leaks which made me think of you. How did appt go today? :)

So what's my point, you may ask. First of all, I have neglected to give you an update, and curiosity and concern may have been needling a few of you kind friends. The first two sessions went well. No dramatic change occurred after the first appointment, but for most of last week my pain, especially the back pain, was noticeably better. Correlation does not always indicate causation, but for now we are sticking with this new line of treatment. In fact, I'm minutes away from leaving for the next point-appointment as I write this. We must be punctual. [Update: Appointment number three went fine. It didn't seem to help my ankle this time, but my back hurts less than before the treatment.] Thank you for your continued prayers.

Secondly, the last week has been challenging in ways not pertaining to my health. At such times, laughter is more valuable than ever. In that light, feel free to sharpen up your sense of humor and share your best acupuncture pun or joke in the comments. It's ok to poke a little fun at me. Take your best shot. The funniest clean joke or real-life humor you've encountered lately is also welcome. (It's probably not necessary to ask, but please make a point to be respectful and courteous to any other people or groups involved in your joke or story. I reserve the right to moderate comments.)

More importantly even than laughter, let me begin the week with gratitude to God, the Author of laughter and joy. Thank You, Lord,

for laughter
for joy mingled together with the sorrows You allow for our good
for hugs from friends
for a small but perfectly chosen Bible study group Wednesday
for lunch with a friend from there afterward
for whole wheat pancakes and scrambled eggs
for the Lord's nearness to the brokenhearted
for hymns of Christ and the Cross on Sunday
for the kind, gentle acupuncturist
for e-mails from friends
for friends who act in parallel and find out later
for new butterfly bookmarks

for horsing around with Allen at a nearby retail/restaurant/residential development

for Mr. and Mrs. Cardinal having breakfast together on our back porch and not minding my camera behind the glass

for a phone visit with Nonni this afternoon

for hearing my youngest sister's voice on the phone three times in four days, a rarity
for an hour's visit with a friend before her surgery later this week
for a birthday package happily surprising its recipient
for bluebonnets in waiting (still!) at the park where I enjoyed them last year
for wild, crazy temperature swings reminding us that this is Texas, after all
for frozen whole wheat pizza dough easily prepared
for "blessings all mine, and ten thousand beside"
(gratitude journal #10,036-10,057 over two years; starting again at #1 on Wednesday)