My Lovely Dwelling Place

  Have you ever felt stuck? Something like that old saying, “between a rock and a hard place”? Not just wondering if you will ever get “unstuck” but also wondering what the process will be. It could be career related, relationship related – or for me lately – health related. In my day job, I often have to talk with people dealing with a nasty new diagnosis or having to live with a persistent chronic condition. Somethings are hard to get out of – and frankly, often there is no escape. There’s something to be said for making the most of a bad situation, making lemonade out of lemons, and being content in whatever circumstance we find ourselves in – but living it is harder than saying it. In Judges 6 Gideon was wondering just that. Gideon’s people, the people of Israel, were paying the price for having done evil in the sight of the Lord (Judges 6:1). Something they were incredibly good at if you read Exodus or Numbers or Judges – most of the Old Testament actually. D...

  On my day planner I have a standard entry entitled “general house”. This stands for making my bed, picking up and putting away assorted items left lying around, managing any laundry, cleaning the kitchen, making sure the floors aren’t littered with debris and dog hair and collecting garbage. This morning while performing these mundane tasks I was grumbling – “Why does no one else pick up?”; “How does the floor get this dirty?”; “You’d think with all the cooking others do they could wash a dish!”; “What happened to all the towels?!”; That’s the problem with mundane tasks – your mind can think on other things while you do them. On a positive note, my three adult sons, who still live here, all make their beds – that’s success, right? I must have got that message across. I’m a firm believer in making the bed – I heard it said once if your bed is made your room is 80% clean and you have accomplished something early in the day to set the tone for the rest of it. This is a similar th...

  The ironies of living with adult children are manifold. For example, asking where they are going or where they have been gets a response similar to espionage of state secrets. However, if I have left without their notice or permission – it requires multiple texts and calls and inquiries from whomever as to my whereabouts. I don’t presume this urgent desire to know my whereabouts springs from a tender concern for my welfare. I believe it comes, more likely, from annoyance that I am not where they left me.   As far as duties required when living in a home such as scrubbing a toilet or a bathtub, those are miraculously cleaned by the housekeeping fairy. When it comes to sweeping a floor or vacuuming a rug, it is much easier to leave footprints than to remove them. Simple requests are met with sighs of disgust and an obvious attitude of imposition – after all there are agendas that must be kept – theirs not mine. What about the dishes you ask, well making them dirty is muc...

  For the average Christian woman, I hazard to guess, the Saturday between Good Friday and Resurrection Morning is a day of housecleaning, cooking, preparing and wrapping up finishing touches to Easter baskets – not to mention ensuring everyone in the family has something sufficiently spiffy to wear on the most important Sunday on the church calendar. There will also most likely be some special church events to which she is contributing and preparing. All this would make for a busy, full Saturday – perhaps a bit harried and not at all conducive to meditations and ponderings. We’ve all heard the saying, “ It’s Friday, but Sunday’s coming ”, which is of course referring to the awesome and miraculous reversal of Christ on the cross, suffering for our sin, to Christ risen, victorious over sin and death. We have the privilege of knowing He is King – He has won. Our salvation, indeed Christianity in total, is based on that truth. But the disciples – Peter, John and the others, ...

Since we recently celebrated Easter and remembered the resurrection of Jesus Christ – if we attended church or read the passages from scripture chronicling those events - we may have noticed Mary Magdalene. She has the distinctions of being one of Jesus’s female disciples. We first meet her in Luke 8, where we find out Jesus has delivered her from seven demons. This is also mentioned in the gospel of Mark (Luke 8:2; Mark 16:9). We don’t read about this occurrence – this casting out of demons. We don’t have any details of when it occurred, what she suffered, or how Jesus delivered her. We only have the statements from Luke and Mark that it happened. From other examples of demon possessed people in Scripture we can imagine what life would have been like for Mary – dark, oppressive, terrifying, depressing, degrading and desperate. But she was delivered. Jesus saw her – He knew her – and He delivered her. She is likely called Mary Magdalene to differentiate her from the multiple othe...

  His Grace in Sufficient   So, the other day I had a particularly frustrating day at work – not a new thing, not an everyday thing – but certainly not an isolated thing. I came home to an ongoing conflict – again not a new thing, not an everyday thing – but certainly not an isolated thing. I’ve seen it before… maybe different faces and different situations – but basically the same show, different day… And I was tired… tired of foolishness, tired of selfishness, tired of impatience and anger… tired of sin that continually raises its ugly head in my life, in my home, in the workplace, and in the world at large. And I heard myself say – “I wish I had a different life.” Now this made me pause, because I know I’m blessed. I’m thankful for the life the Lord has given me. I love my husband and my children. And I am thankful for my job. But I said it anyway... Sometimes that’s how life is – we get tired of it. Now I’m not a very astute person – sometimes I have to...