Kernels of Corn

I just got back from a great weekend with my extended family.  It was so good seeing cousins after such a long time.  One of my cousins has the family farm, and he still plants crops in the old fields.  One of the things that he has been planting is corn. He takes the corn and dries it out and then grinds it down into grits and corn meal.  He uses the corn sheller that my grandfather used.  Two years ago, my sisters and I drove to the old home, and we tried our hand at making our own grits and meal.  I'm sure it was entertaining for my cousins to see the "citifolk" (my sisters and I) getting so dirty from the scalp down and loving it!  We had never done anything like it, and we probably never will - unless we make it back down there with our own kids!  My cousins have perfected the display and do it for school groups, scouts, homeschoolers.  It is such an interesting thing to see something as ordinary as cornbread and how it evolves from the field to the table. 

If you think of a giant field of corn and then move to the potential ears therein, can you even begin to imagine the number of kernels that are there?  And if you take those kernels and grind them down into grits, how much more could be counted?  The process is only multiplied further when corn meal is made.  This is exponential growth.  The one field becomes many ears which become many kernels which become many grains.  This is the kind of math that God practices!

So many times, we feel like our lives are not worth much.  We think that we aren't accomplishing the great things that we just knew in our hearts that we should be doing.  I often have found myself thinking that I have lost all potential, that I am not doing as much as I should.  But if we each consider ourselves a field, all we have to do is touch the ears of corn within our borders.  We aren't responsible for every kernel.  There is a downline, if you will, of outreach that should be occurring.  In other words, I am responsible to be a light to the people who are in my family, my work, my community.  The ultimate goal is that those people, then, take something from me and in turn influence the people in their realms of influence.  From there, the next level turns and takes it on.  If you can picture yourself making an impact on just 12 lives, and those 12 turn and touch 12 and those 12 turn and touch 12 and so on, in just nine cycles, you have impacted every person on the planet.  When you look at your life in terms of personal impact, this make the task seem so much less daunting, doesn't it?  We can make a difference in our families, in our communities and in our world.  In fact, we will never even know the extent of our influence until we are face to face with God and all is revealed.  I have a feeling we will be surprised at the ways that we have touched the lives of others. 

I think of my cousins who bring kids to the farm and teach them about the simplicity of good food.  The potential to make an impact on the lives of those who visit is great.  The kindness that is displayed can warm the heart of a child in desperate need of love. 

Likewise, when we encounter a person in need a prayer offered up could do so much to bring great light to a lonely soul.  I challenge each of you to be a light.  We don't even need to be a beacon!  We just need to bring Jesus to the people nearby, and then we can encourage them to do the same.  In fact, it may not be the huge assemblies that will make the most impact in the end.  It will most likely be the people like you and like me who have lived lives of example and gently led others to do the same who will impact this world in the greatest fashion. 

Family Reunions

What shall I cook? We are headed off to Alabama for a family reunion.  As usual, someone will fry the chicken, etc, and we are to bring sides and desserts.  It sounds pretty easy, but I always wonder what in the world I should fix that would reflect who I am to the family that I only ever seen once in several years.  Should I make a more metropolitan dish with worldly spices? or something super healthy that nudges the larger members to make wise choices? or should I keep it real and make the home cooking that my grandmother would have done? I haven't been to this particular reunion in about 12 years, so these are the things that have crossed my mind on a superficial level.  But at the heart of things, I still miss my grandmother who passed away 24 years ago.  Many of my aunts and uncles are gone, as well.  And I worry about many of my cousins who had not previously made their faith known.  Do they know Jesus now?  Family reunions always bring up the many thoughts that lie dormant for most of the time. 

In truth, every Sunday at church is a family reunion, of sorts.  If we think about it, the Bible tells us that we are all joint heirs with Jesus...which basically means that we are adopted as daughters and sons of God, the Father.  With this in mind, we all get together for fellowship and the food of the Word - a family reunion!  When my family gets together, which is only once a year, everyone laughs and tells old stories and dreams of the future.  Not one minute is wasted arguing about what kind of background music we should hear...or when we should take up the donation for next year's paper goods.  No time is wasted thinking about why my dad may have prayed 30 seconds too long or why my dish is not the favored choice.  We don't worry about the trivial things; instead, we fellowship.  I just bet that this is what God is looking for when we gather together under His family name. 

1 Corinthians 1:10 say,s "I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought."  Wouldn't it be wonderful if all of our church family reunions were so orderly and godly?  And wouldn't it be perfect if our biological families could be so agreeable all the time?  This is our goal.  Instead of the continual problems between us, we should be growing up in our walk with God to a point where we can behave ourselves and get along.  This would please the Father. 

 I still don't know what to bring.  Since it will be in south Alabama, I'll probably just have to stop by a store and pick up fruit and dip.  I can't really make anything fabulous and ride in the car for 10 hours...so my dish will reflect my favorite food:  fruit! 

I hope your Memorial Day get together will be fun and agreeable! 

Incredible, Edible, Unmendable

If I'm in a hurry but still want a tasty meal, I almost always make something with eggs!  You can do anything to eggs!  When we visit Japan, my sweet friend scrambles them with a bit of soy sauce and whatever fresh veggies she has in her garden.  They are always perfect.  When I'm at my mother's house, we scramble them and put them between two slices of toast with a little mayo for an egg sandwich.  When I have too many veggies in the fridge that look like they might be on the verge of going bad, I make several quiches and freeze them for later.  And when we do any sort of stir-fried veggies, we top it with a fried egg and a little hot sauce.  Eggs are versatile, inexpensive and necessary to so many recipes, but once they are broken, they are broken.

When Matthew, our oldest, was about three, we visited a farm in the mountains in Japan.  At that time, my friend was farming chickens and pigs.  She had hundreds of chickens, and she had gathered the eggs for a few days - hundreds, possibly thousands of them - and stacked them in egg crates by the side of her house, waiting for the truck to come pick them up.  The home was an old Japanese home, complete with sliding doors all around the exterior.  Matthew wanted to see the eggs, so he opened the door just above them (the door was about 3 feet off the ground).  He leaned over to get a better view, and he fell out of the window onto all the eggs.  Almost all of them were broken.  I was horrified!  Sad to say, my first reaction was not concern for Matthew...I was thinking about my friend's income and how it was ruined.  I was so upset that we could do nothing to make things better.  I offered to pay for the eggs, but she wouldn't let me.  Instead, we took the crates and began to pour as much egg into bowls as we could.  We took the rest of the afternoon to make tomagoyaki, a Japanese treat where thin layers of egg are rolled into long jelly-roll looking shapes and then sliced into pretty pinwheels.  We gave tomagoyaki to everyone we could think of that day. 

My friend was so gracious, and, yes, Matthew was quite alright.  He cried a bit because he was so ashamed that he caused such commotion, but he was fine.  He found out that it was true, though, that all the king's horses and all the king's men just couldn't put those eggs back together! 

I don't know about you, but I have had quite a few days in my time where my heart felt like those broken eggs.  I have felt very unmendable.  And sometimes when I pray for people, I get the feeling that they, too, are looking at the tough situations in their lives and feeling this same way.  When our hearts are broken, no words can remove the pain of the moment.  We aren't looking for people to gather around and say a lot of things or give a lot of advice.  We just need someone to love us and sit with us, maybe give a hug or two.  As children of God, we need the compassionate arms of God to hold us. As ambassadors for the Kingdom of God, we have the ability to be those arms.  I really love Isaiah 61. There is such comfort there.
 ¹ The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me,
   because the LORD has anointed me
   to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
   to proclaim freedom for the captives
   and release from darkness for the prisoners,
² to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor
   and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,
 ³ and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
   instead of ashes,
the oil of joy
   instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
   instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
   a planting of the LORD
   for the display of his splendor. 

I don't know about you, but I'd much rather wear a crown of beauty than the ashes of mourning.  I definitely need a garment of praise instead of the heaviness of despair.  And my broken heart often needs binding.  The amazing thing about being part of the family of God is that we have each other to help us through trying times.  There are so many reasons to be part of a local church, and this one is a great one.  We can comfort each other like only family can.

For each of you who have been a source of comfort to me, thank you.  I have been refreshed and refilled by your side.  To those who have needed me and will need me yet, I love you and will pray for you and give you all the hugs you need!  I'm more of a "has-been" than a beauty queen, but I do have a crown of beauty and a garment of praise that I'll lend out any time you need it!

...and for those of you who just can't think of what to cook for dinner, try eggs!  Incredible and edible.

Youthful Zeal and Mermaid Fun

So far this morning, three little 9 year old girls have been outside playing, waking the neighborhood on a Saturday morning...eating a breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast...playing some more...making homemade cupcakes...decorating them...making homemade chocolate ice cream...cleaning up after everything...slathering on sunscreen and then playing some more.  It's 9:17a.m.  I can't even begin to think how the rest of the day will go.  If I had my "druthers", we'd all still be asleep, dreaming of being mermaids in a tropical ocean, but here we are, taking the world by the lead and swinging it onto our own course of frenetic energy!  If you've never had a house full of little girls, you probably have no idea what I'm talking about. 

Like I said, it's only minutes after 9a.m., and they are begging to get into the waves.  They have plans to tackle the tide, go to the neighborhood pool and try out a mermaid fin, eat at a local restaurant, go to the aquarium.... This could be an exhausting day, but I just bet that they'll be up until midnight again tonight, watching movies, painting fingernails and giggling like only 9 year old girls can do!  Oh, what I could accomplish if I had that sort of youthful energy combined with the maturity and vision that I now know! 

I do think, though, that there is a lesson to be learned from these little gals.  They attack everything with excitement.  They run towards the challenge with huge smiles on their faces.  It's a pleasure to watch them in their tireless pursuit of the next thing.   Romans 12:11 says it perfectly, "Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord."  What if we, like children, happily and energetically approached our Christian walk?  We could be so affective!  It seems that the older we get, the more and more complacent we become, but that is not the plan that God has for us.  He really longs for us to be like little children in our faith and our walk with Him.

Have you ever taken a child to Disney?  Do you remember the gleam in their eyes when they saw the characters come to life and experienced the excitement of Disney first-hand?  Do you remember the great pleasure that you knew just to watch the little one be so enraptured?  That is the sort of pleasure that God most likely feels when He sees our excitement in our daily walk.  I can only imagine that the Father is over-joyed when we are over-joyed! 

Well, it's time to get these gals to the beach.  We have waves to kick and mermaid suits to try!  I hope you enjoy your day as much as we will!

Smells Bad, Tastes Good

Several years ago, my family had to go to Thailand for a board meeting for a ministry that serves Asia.  We had a great time in that special country.  It was one of the trips that we will remember fondly forever, and the hotel where we stayed was an interesting part of those memories!  Back in its day, this place must have been spectacular.  There was so much carved wood everywhere we looked!  There were plenty of flowers - orchids, in fact - growing all over the gigantic lobby.  The rooms, though, looked like they had not been seen by management in 30 plus years.  But how much time do we really stay in a hotel room when visiting an exotic country, anyway, right? 

People who stayed in this hotel could bring in any food whatsoever that they liked....except...durian! 

The forbidden fruit.... There was a market outside of the hotel that sold pretty much anything that you could ever find in Thailand, and there was a fruit vendor there who was selling this large and unattractive fruit.  Yep.  It gave off a pretty fowl odor, but the vendor said (and I quote), "Smell like Hell. Taste like Heaven."  His mighty fine English said it all.  This weird fruit smells a bit like a port-o-john.  It's that strong, but it does have a strange almost cheese, almost fruit kind of taste that is pleasant enough.  I wouldn't call it heaven, exactly, but I'm not Thai. 

Maggie always asks, "Why do the things that are good for you taste so bad when the things that are bad for you taste so good?"  Well, why?  I don't know.  It's not always the case, but there are certain greens and possibly a rutabega or two that I know would be good for me, but I just don't want to taste them.  While that piece of chocolate and peanut butter fudge that I would love to eat just might be my undoing.  Thankfully, we have access to a nutritional value run-down on everything these days.  We aren't really kept in the dark, but no one posts signs telling us what is right or wrong, either.

Teenagers and rising adults sometimes have an almost disabled sense of right and wrong.  Not disabled, exactly, but at least desensitized.  I remember my younger years and cringe when I think of the truly stupid choices that I made.  So many of the things that I decided to do seemed like a good idea in the moment, but I knew better.  There's no polite way to say it: I was a fool for many of those precious years.  It wasn't that I didn't have access to a good values code.  It's really that I ignored the wisdom that my parents had been spoon feeding me for so long.  There just comes a time when we have to take that wisdom, ingest it and claim it as our own, but that doesn't mean that parents simply can overlook their children's unwise thought patterns.  We give them all that we can that is godly and good, but there comes a time when parents must begin to step back slowly and give their children a little more space to try out their own decision-making skills.  I made so many mistakes.  All of my friends did, too.  In fact, I haven't seen but a handful of teenagers who didn't trip terribly along the way.  The truth is, though, that almost all of the kids who have been raised well grow up to be wonderful adults, regardless of the foolish choices made.  This must have been true back in King Solomon's time, as well, because he felt it necessary to record a bit of wisdom on this: "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is older, he won't depart from it." Proverbs 22:6 

With a teenager in the house and another quickly following, I know that I will come to lean heavily on the assurance that God certainly will take over when I drop the reins in my children's lives.  They'll probably do a few things that carry bad "smells"...They may even look half rotten on the outside from time to time.  But I'm sure that the results will be heavenly when it's all said and done!  "Smell like Hell. Taste like Heaven." I'll just bet that my own parents can relate to that sentiment in my life!  I turned out OK, but, boy,  was I ever rotten in those in-between years! 

Crab Pot Attraction

We bought a crab pot 3 days ago.  We put in the bait and, within minutes, pulled up about 10 crabs.  We let them go.  We then repeated the same thing.  Every time we throw that pot in the water, crabs all but run to it, and we've baited it and caught about 60 crabs so far, but we keep throwing them back in.  Actually, Wayne and I are looking forward to a good steamed crab.  I want to pick the meat and make a seafood casserole or add it to an excellent gumbo.  But...every time we get ready to harvest our crabs, the kids get all upset about killing them.  They don't want to hurt the poor things....especially the ones who are obviously carrying roe.  Now I agree with them there.  Who could kill a mother and her young, right?  But so many of them are just there to be eaten!  There obviously are plenty of them if we have caught so many with so little effort. 

It's amazing, actually, how little effort is involved.  The pot smells like old fish, and the crabs just come running.  I get the feeling that there might be something akin to this principle at work in my own life.  It's funny in a way, but almost everywhere I go, people just walk up to me and start telling me the sad details of their lives.  I'm not kidding.  Total strangers have approached me in stores and told me about their divorces, their kids who are on drugs, their struggles with depression.  I usually get in the car and tell my husband or my kids, "Well, it happened again."  Or I'll call Jenny McN and let her know that, yep, I've still got it. 

I started noticing this phenomenon about 14 years ago.  Wayne and I were involved in a prayer walk that took 46 days to complete.  We were deep in prayer with our teammates all day, every day.  Every time we stopped somewhere, someone - usually a child - would come up to me and say interesting things.  These things were very indicative of spiritual awareness.  I was so surprised.  From that moment on, people have walked up to me and spilled their anxieties.  I've figured out that I'm just the crab pot, but the Holy Spirit is the bait.  There are so many hungry people everywhere that I go.  I don't have to say a word to them.  They don't have to be in a church.  All that happens is that I walk into a gasoline station, and they come to me.  It seems strange.  It seems unlikely, but the more that I think about it, isn't that what Jesus said?  "But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself."  John 12:32 

This phenomenon is, in fact, very likely.  The world is hungry.  It seems like there are plenty of places to get what a person needs, but if the hurting people out there never go in search of a Redeemer, how is He going to get to them?  Through you.  Through me. The truth is, people rarely search for the right things.  They just search.  It turns out that in my experience, what is really happening is that God is searching for them.  Why else would I be in the most unlikely places on the planet when random strangers approach me and tell me deep and personal things?  It has to be that the Spirit of God is at work in me.  I could stop at any gas station in town.  I could go to any grocery store I like.  But for some reason or the other, sometimes I do things just a little bit differently, and then people come to me and reveal their hurt.  At this point, I'm keen to what is happening.  I pray with random strangers regularly now.  I don't mind the awkwardness of supermarket stares.  I'm so over that. 

I bet that if we took that crab pot out of the water and sat it up on the dirt, the crabs would still find it as long as the bait stayed in it.  They don't want the crab pot.  They just want the food that's inside. 

I hope that you'll keep the compelling "odor" of the Holy Spirit alive in your own heart.  Begin to notice the random conversations that you have.  Begin to follow those impulses that tell you to change up the routine a bit.  God is always searching for those who need Him, and we are always the vehicle for a move of His redeeming presence!  Don't be afraid to pray with people and to point them in the right direction.  You're just the crab pot.  The good stuff is God. 

Birthday Choices

Today is a very special day!  On this day, we will probably eat chicken mini's for breakfast.  We will most likely have grilled cheese for lunch, and we will definitely have grilled salmon and strawberry cake for dessert this evening!  But not just any strawberry cake....birthday cake!  Our little girl turns 9 today, and we are going to celebrate all day long.  We probably won't stop there...we'll probably keep right on celebrating through the weekend!

A birthday is quite a special thing for a child.  I remember my own birthdays...I waited for them all year long.  I kept my mouth shut, not wanting to spoil any of the possible surprises that would come.  My family didn't throw parties, but we did celebrate with special birthday meals, cake and a really nice gift.  I was always so very thrilled to be able to choose the menu for dinner, and almost always, I chose roast beef with potates and carrots.  Believe it or not, on a few occasions, I chose fried liver and onions with mashed potatoes.  One of my sisters chose red beans and rice with sausage a few times.  And when we got older and went to restaurants, I chose a catfish house (that also served frog legs on the buffet) a couple of times.  To this day, the tradition remains.  We can chose what we want to eat if we are anywhere near our parents' house!  And now that I'm older, I usually want my mother to cook venison hash - I only get it about once a year since Wayne doesn't hunt, and we don't have a freezer filled with venison. In this same fashion, Miss Maggie has chosen her special celebratory meals today.  Like I said, chicken mini's, grilled cheese, salmon and cake.  With so many choices out there, this is what has been selected. 

We are surrounded every day by choices.  I choose the clothes that I wear.  I choose the things we will do for the day.  (I choose which privileges to revoke for homework undone....ha!) I choose the food that will be served for supper.  But when it comes down to what's really important in our lives, there is only one choice that will determine our eternal future.  Will you accept Jesus as your Savior and your Lord?  This is all that really matters.  Everything else is just "fluff and stuff"...Jesus is all that counts.

A friend of ours was telling us about the prayerful consideration on the purchase of a house.  He said he was agonizing over whether or not to move.  The Lord told him, "I don't care nearly as much about where you live as how you live."  That's it, isn't it?  God Himself isn't as bogged down in our details as we are.  We think that the world will come to an end if we don't get things right.  Not so.  God is more concerned with what is eternal.  He knows that all of this will fade away.

One of the verses that has been in the center of our home since Wayne and I were married is in the form of a beautiful paint and pencil original piece.  A friend of ours from California was in set design in the film industry.  He had lost his way in his life and found himself caught in an ungodly lifestyle.  He came to Jesus through Jack Hayford's ministry at Church on the Way and gave his heart and his art to God completely.  The picture that he gave us for our wedding was his life's story.  It is a field with an old home - the home in which he grew up.  The house represents the pain and old memories of his life, but the field around it represents the new life and the harvest that surrounds us all.  The sun is setting in a gloriously colorful sky, and the verse below it sums up the choice that our friend came to understand as the most important part of his life.  "Choose you this day whom you will serve.  As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." Joshua 24:15 Our friend made this choice very late in his life.  In fact, in his last few days, we brought him food, cooked for him a bit, helped him clean his house, but he ultimately died of complications with HIV.   That isn't the part that God counts, though.  The part that has eternal benefit is the moment where he chose to serve a risen Savior!  Our friend's earthly body bore the remaining bit of sinful decay, but his spirit bears the eternal righteousness that is ours when all is covered by the blood of a pure and spotless sacrifice, given for our cause.

It doesn't matter who you are.  It doesn't matter what you've done.  It doesn't matter how unworthy you feel.  All that matters is that Jesus died for you.  Jesus took all of our sins to the cross with Him.  He paid the price for us to live in freedom.  It's as if we were all on an auction block of slavery.  We were bound in ungodly service to sin and the world.  But Jesus said, "I'll pay."  His precious blood was all that was necessary to cover the terrible cost of the sins of this guilty world.  Your choice is all that you have to pay to find freedom.  The price was already given, just say yes. 

Once that weighty choice has been made, all else is smooth sailing!  Then life is filled with the simple and wonderful choices of...what will I have for my birthday dinner?

Happy birthday, Miss Maggie!  We are so glad that you were born!  And we are so thrilled that you have made the choice to let God live in your heart!  Have a wonderful birthday!