My Little Chickadee

“Speed Racer,” I call him,

His black helmet

Striped with white,

His body sleek and compact

Like a sportscar.

“Chi-chi-chi-chee!” he chortles

As he skids in for a pit stop

At the feeder.

Faster than a photo finish,

Zoom!

He zips off to the races again:

No time to stop,

No time to spare,

Chasing that checkered flag.

Cheeky bird can't even be still long enough to eat!

Getting acquainted with the diverse and unique birds just on our small property has increased my appreciation of God's beautiful creation. If that's not a playdate with God, I'm not sure what is. :) Sharing this with Laura's community...

When the Giants Loom Large

Today has been one of those embattled days with no fresh crises or tragedies but lots of harassments and temptations to fear. Do you know the type, when all the problems are nine feet tall and I'm just this scrawny shepherd with a pocketful of rocks?

Reinforcing thoughts have arrived this afternoon, so I'm jotting them down lest I forget:

• Any enemy who comes against me is my Father's enemy, too.
• Oh, and did I mention that my Dad is the Lord of hosts, the God of the angelic armies?
• The problems and enemies may be too big for me, but He is too big for them. My strength, wisdom, and adequacy are not the determining factors in this battle. (Thanks, Lisa!)
• With His help, five smooth stones are four more than I need.
• "The LORD who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine" (1 Sam. 17:37, HCSB).  Remembering His grace and victory in the past gives me courage for the present.

David said to the Philistine, "You come against me with a dagger, spear, and sword, but I come against you in the name of the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel's armies— you have defied Him. Today, the LORD will hand you over to me....  Then all the world will know that Israel has a God, and this whole assembly will know that it is not by sword or by spear that the LORD saves, for the battle is the LORD's.  He will hand you over to us" (1 Sam. 17:45-47, HCSB).

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Yes, this is a second post in a single day, but perhaps someone out there needed it as much as I did?  Y'all are a blessing to me. Thank you for sharing your day with me.

Hope of Glory

God wanted to make known to those among the Gentiles the glorious wealth of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Colossians 1:27, HCSB

Strengthen us by Your Spirit, Lord,

To know the love of Christ;

To trust Your faithful mercies,

In the darkness and the light.

Empower us with Your presence, Lord,

To pray, “Your will, not mine;”

To forgive when we are wounded;

To find strength for every thorn.

Dependent on Your grace, we come;

Father, fill us with Your life.

May Your Holy Spirit make us more like You.

For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen (Ephesians 3:14-21, NIV1984).

In response to Ann's invitation to contribute thoughts on a Christ-centered life, it seems good to begin by remembering that only a Christ-filled life, through the indwelling Holy Spirit, can be a Christ-centered life. For other contributions to the discussion, please click below:

...and keeping company with the folks at Emily's:

Storm Cellars

In this unusually severe tornado season, tales of storm cellars abound.


One of A.'s colleagues was sheltering in hers while high winds blew the side off her barn. She lives farther north in our own county.

A news story reported an entire neighborhood's 14 people and six pets finding refuge in the sole storm cellar on the block.

Another story featured a company which constructs storm cellars and steel-reinforced safe rooms in homes.  In this region where basements are few and far between, the proprietors have more business than they can handle. Plus a waiting list.

When I hear these things and the severe weather season is far from over, I am tempted to envy, to covet those secure hiding places for when the lightning cracks and wind howls in the middle of the night. I think to myself, "If we ever build a custom home, we should have one of those."

"If we had a storm cellar, we would be safe from tornadoes."


At times like these, I am grateful for the swift and sure correction that often comes from the passage the calendar tells me to read in God's Word.  Checking the chart, opening journal and Bible, I read this:

The name of Yahweh is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are protected (Proverbs 18:10, HCSB).

The HCSB Study Bible informs me that cities in the ancient Near East often included a tall tower like a fortress in the center of town. When enemies threatened, the whole town would throng to the tower and shut themselves inside. It was a storm shelter of sorts, for a different kind of storm.

The study notes also remind me that "name" in ancient times denoted a person's whole character, his essential nature.

So why would the name of Yahweh, Israel's covenant God (and the Christian's), why would His "name" provide safety from danger?

To answer that, we need to know His name. He Himself proclaimed it before Moses after He gave the second set of tablets inscribed with the law:

Then the LORD came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the LORD. And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation" (Exodus 34:5-7, NIV).

Compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, forgiving wickedness, rebellion, and sin: if the mighty God, Creator of the ends of the earth, is also all of these things, surely He is a safe place for us.

The last bit makes me squirm a little, but when I am the one under attack, when someone is guilty of sinning against me, God's promise to punish the guilty gives comfort. By the same token, when I'm the guilty party, as is more often the case, it cautions me to revere and respect God and flee back to Him to receive the grace and forgiveness He promises. It should also teach me to pray for those who sin against me, that they also would seek and find His grace and forgiveness.

A dugout shelter or steel-reinforced room are not ultimately what will give me the safety I long for. The LORD God is my only real security, and He can keep me safe with or without those means. If He provides them one day, by all means I will thank Him and use them, but for now it is that revelation of His character which I will wrap around myself in the middle of the night.

By the same token, if He wishes, He can allow the storms to strip me of everything but Jesus, and He can do that with or without a storm cellar close at hand.  May He protect you and me both, dear Crumble, from such a test, but if He asks it of us, even there He will be our strong tower. Only the certainty that He is compassionate and gracious, abounding in love and faithfulness, forgiving, altogether good, only that truth will be the refuge to keep us safe through the valley of shadow.

Lord, I believe; help my unbelief, for Jesus' sake. Amen.


Thank You, Father,
~that You are a strong tower available for our protection
~for Your name: merciful and gracious, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin
~for storm cellars when You provide them
~for lightning and strong winds to drive us to Your throne of grace
~for a quiet Saturday morning to read Your Word
~for a husband who sacrifices sleep to walk the Ebony dog while I cannot
~for lovely readers who show God's love in their comments and notes
~for two encouraging interviews for an unemployed loved one
~for working appliances and air conditioner
~for veterinary help for Ebony's itchy skin (just allergies like the rest of Texas)
~for cheering the home team on together
~for laying burdens down
~for a lightened heart
~for finding out she and I were memorizing the same verses at the same time
~for good reads on my Kindle
~for turning on the radio and hearing song after song speaking directly to my heart
~our excellent (award-winning!) local Christian radio station
~a lovely just-because card from a dear friend
(from the gratitude list #375-392)


Celebrating God's goodness with the community at Ann's:




...and sharing one of my playdates with God with the friends at Laura's beautiful spot:

Honeycomb Words

An anxious heart weighs a man down, but a kind word cheers him up (Proverbs 12:25, NIV1984).

Earlier this spring, I was feeling hungry:  hungry for approval. This is not so unusual for me, and the temptation actively to seek validation from others is one of the concerns I had about blogging. It's tantalizing but ultimately empty to chase page view numbers, comments, and the like.


On this particular day, however, that was not the focus. I was hungry for positive feedback from Important People, authority figures. Ebony and I are alike that way: highly motivated by yummy treats praise. Not being a student who would receive that from teachers or a professional who would (ideally) receive it from a manager or boss, I wanted it from doctors, who these days are the most numerous and frequently encountered authority figures in my life.


(Some might protest that doctors are service providers and I am the customer, but for a recovering people pleaser like me, that is not how it feels.)


In my journal and prayer time, God and I had a chat about this, or rather I talked and He listened. "I am working so hard at taking and keeping track of my medicines, adding and subtracting activities, making more appointments with more specialists when they say to, maintaining precise records of symptoms, medicines, and activities to provide them the data they need to help me... I'm worn out trying to get well. But it seems like the harder I try, the more new issues keep popping up.  The medicines aren't making as big or as fast a difference as the doctors expect, and when that happens it feels like I'm the one who's the failure and not the medicines or the treatment approach. I just want one of them to notice how hard I'm working at getting better and to tell me I'm doing a good job at being a patient. That's all.  I just want to hear from them that I'm doing this right."


Silence. I thought I heard a cricket chirp nearby.


So I did what any God-fearing, Bible-believing Christian in her third decade of walking with Christ would do. I went to my husband and repeated the whole pathetic litany to him.


Smile, nod, "Sweetie, God is in control of the results." Granted, he was on his way to the garage for something from his toolbox, and he was right, but that was still not the reaction I was hoping for.


Two weeks passed, and the urgency of the craving for Approval from Important People faded somewhat in the wee distractions of a bigger health crisis for a family member and an upcoming dental surgery.


A few days before the procedure, I met with my asthma doctor for a routine (as much as anything is with me) check. This wise doctor treats me with kindness, gentleness, respect, and personal attention as though I'm the only patient he will see that day. Although he is retirement age or fast approaching it, he continues to practice medicine and study the journals to improve his craft. He is a gifted physician skilled in the art as well as the science of medicine.


At this visit, he talked with me about any changes in my overall health picture and offered some suggestions for adapting my breathing and activities to decrease costochondritis pain. After supplying me with prescriptions and samples, he turned to leave and then turned back toward me.


"You know," he said, "I think this every time you come in here, but I'm not sure if I've ever actually said it to you. You are the kind of patient that reminds me why I keep doing this. You're caring, you're smart, and you...not everything is something we can make better, but...you want to be better. Patients like you are the reason we--doctors, nurses--do what we do."


He paused a moment, nodded for emphasis, turned again, and left the room.


Gathering my belongings and composure, I swallowed hard, blinked back tears, and followed suit, both happy and deeply moved. After a stop at the front desk to pay and schedule the next appointment, I went to the car and sat in stunned silence a moment before turning toward home. A girl can live a long time on words like that.

God had seen. He had heard. He answered through this good physician in His due time. Through the words of my doctor, He let me know, "I have called you by your name; you are Mine."

Since then, when a positive observation or insight into someone around me has crossed my mind or path, I am seeking to follow my doctor's example by not only thinking it but saying or writing it to the person before life rushes on. We can never know this side of heaven whom around us might be starving for just such a sweet, healing word, but that is one case in which I believe from experience it is better to speak than to remain silent.


Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones (Proverbs 16:24, NIV1984).


Just wondering: What about you? Has anyone given you "honeycomb words" recently that you'd like to share? If not, is that something I could pray for you?

Joining Bonnie's Faith Jam today...