Graveyards and Genealogies

I love to stroll through graveyards or study genealogies. It is not that I have a morbid fascination with death…but rather that I have a deep interest in life stories. Graveyards and genealogies point out that there is an end to every life story…at some point the last chapter is written and the book is closed. Then only the question remains… what message is left for those who remember??
When I wander through a graveyard I read the tombstones searching for a clue concerning the life of the person whose name is now etched in stone. I may glean the fact that they were a wife or a mother , whether they died in their youth , in childbirth, or in old age, sometimes there may be a phrase added beneath their name , or perhaps a favorite scripture verse or saying. Sometimes the stone is overgrown with moss and I wonder , is there no one who remembers them?

Just as I search for clues on a tombstone I have also sometimes found things of interest in a genealogy list.
Years before Jabez became a household name through Wilkerson’s book, I had discovered him tucked away in the middle of the genealogy recorded in I Chronicles 4.
There are several things that strike me about Jabez that are still a message to us…. thousands of years later.
First Jabez seems to be pulled out of obscurity… we are not even told who his parents are…even though the brief mention of him is sandwiched in the midst of a list of begats. He seems to come from an unknown or insignificant family , perhaps even a family from the ‘wrong side of the tracks’ judging from the fact that he is said to be more honorable than his brethren. And to add to the picture of a less than ideal family we are told that his mother named him Jabez ( meaning- born in pain) because she bore him in sorrow. Jabez could have joined his brethren in their worthless pursuits but Jabez desired to be different. He could have lived his life in self-absorption. He could have determined to give as he got…to get even , to demand what he deserved, to get back what he had been denied. But instead Jabez chooses the opposite , and shines bright enough to warrant a special place in God’s His-story…
Jabez obviously had a sensitive heart. He wanted to rise above the sorrow covering his life and asked that God keep him from evil so that he would not live in regret. I believe that Jabez was someone who used his name as a reminder not to bring sorrow or pain into the lives of others.
The fact that we are told God answered his prayer communicates to us that Jabez pleased God in his request and in his life.

The message that Jabez leaves for us is that it doesn’t matter how unprivileged we are at birth or what life deals us in terms of sorrow or hardship … we can rise above it and make our life count in the eyes of God and cause our life to be a blessing to those around us. And a very special encouragement Jabez leaves for us is that God truly is not a respecter of persons… He does hear and answer the prayers of anyone seeking Him.

When I get to heaven Jabez is one of the people I want to look up and have a conversation with. I want to know all about his life …what did he do, where did he live, who did he marry , how many children did he have… what did he think about, and how did he know God. All I have now is the dust jacket from the book of his life.. but one day I will hear the whole story.

Study to Be Like a Child

I doubt there is a university in the world that offers courses in how to become like a child….. and yet Jesus taught in Matt. 18:3 that unless we become like a little child we cannot enter the kingdom of God. An upside down philosophy if judged by the expectations or standards of this world, but in the final scheme of things - where God has the final word -, it is this world that is upside down and God’s kingdom that is rightside up !

We are born into this physical world a child and immediately begin our education to ‘grow-up’ into mature adults. Most of us are born into God’s kingdom ‘mature’ in a physical sense but God commands us to again become like children.
Nothing has shown me the wisdom of God’s directive more than my becoming a grandmother. How my grandchildren have delighted my heart and even though I am proud and happy to see them mature and grow up…. some of my fondest memories are from when they were small and innocent and I had an exclusively privileged place in the center of their little world..

In Hebrews we are told that without ‘faith’ it is impossible to please God. Bible faith is simple childlike trust. And how evident that is in children. How deeply they trust their loving parents and caregivers. What they are told they believe …. When my oldest granddaughter was very little I would tell her that she was Nanna’s angel. One day when her paternal grandparents were also visiting with us…. her grandmother made a comment about her being her angel too. Elise was emphatic in her protest … “NO!! , Nanna’s angel.” (A twist on the phrase “first come, first serve” ! ).. The first perspective of a truth presented to a child becomes his/her standard by which all else is judged. If only we could be so ‘childlike’, that anything God says becomes the indisputable truth by which we judge all else to stand or fall.

Children have not yet learned to be skeptical…. and so what they learn is easily and naturally applied to their daily life. I was looking through some old e-mails and I came across one my daughter sent me when my youngest granddaughter, Elora, was 6. Here in my daughter’s words is what transpired ...

While tucking Elora into bed this is what she said..... (I had just finished reading to the girls about Elijah raising the widow's son from the dead)
"Mom, I have that kind of faith. Today during the Talent Show (an assembly at school) I had to go to the bathroom but I was too shy to ask. I prayed and God gave me the stuff.”
Elise says "Stuff?!?!? What do you mean?"
Elora - “Ummmm.... well I got up and asked my teacher if I could go to the bathroom and I wasn't shy anymore”
Mom says "Oh, do you mean courage?"
Elora replies ,”Ya that's it. Wasn't that cool?"

Childlike faith does not grapple with all the difficulties we embrace as adults … We question, we doubt, we worry, we are ruled by laws of science and human probability , but a child simply trusts that God IS God and of course He hears and sees and nothing is impossible for Him. Oh , to grow in that kind of faith in God. To trust Him no matter what …. Habakkuk had this kind of trust. He declares with childlike abandonment ….. “Although the fig tree shall not blossom…. yet will I rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.” (Habakkuk 3:17,18)

Do You Feel Fulfilled?

Fulfillment … a basic need of every human being….. Many people strive fruitlessly all their life to satisfy this need and miss the obvious.

Allow me to use a silly example… An inventor/creator builds a machine to wash clothes. In every way this machine is suited to do the job intended. If it is forced into any other function , such as cooking food, it will be hopelessly inadequate . In the same way God has created each one of us equipped to achieve fulfillment in doing what God created us to do. Somehow most of us have the ill-begotten idea that to serve God we must do something we dislike or find difficult.. Actually the opposite is true… To please God most we get to do what we love best !!

Contrary to what many may think, I don’t believe it is hard to discover the talent or gifting that is uniquely ours. Proverbs 18:16 says , “A man’s gift maketh room for him, and bringeth him before great men.” Here we have the answer… Your gift will make room for you … In other words, it is part of who you are….it will be what people notice about you , without you having to force or promote it.
What do people like best about you ?? For what do you get the most complements? What do you love to do ?
I have a cousin who loves to entertain.. To be an invited guest in her home is a delight and blessing, and I always find her inspiring . (You can see evidence of her joy on her blog – see link whatmattersmost- ) While I enjoy having people as guests in my home, I always feel to some degree insecure, worrying and hoping that everything is going to be alright.. Hospitality is not my special talent, although I do make an effort to be a gracious hostess. My joy is teaching.. I used to feel guilty thinking that I had the best gift… – but then I realized that everyone who has discovered their gift feels that theirs is the best one. God gives us the desires of our heart to make it easy for us to please Him.

But lest we become prideful of our talent , there is a built-in ‘humbling factor’ in each gift. We have the choice of using our gift to bring blessing or cursing to the people whose lives we touch. I know a woman who loves to give advice . I’m sure her gift is to be an exhorter but she is so overbearing with her advice - giving it when it is neither wanted nor asked for - that people tend to avoid her . We need to grow in learning how to express our gift so that it will be honoring to God and a blessing to others.

Often we strive to be like someone we admire and are discouraged knowing we can never measure up. Isn’t it neat to know that we can please God best by simply being who we are, and doing what we find pleasure in doing?? Whether our gift is worth one talent or ten talents (Matt.25:14-29)…. it doesn’t matter… what matters is what we do with it. And the greater our joy in exercising our gift , the greater our opportunity to please God and bless others.

New Year's Resolutions

New Year’s Resolutions

I have come to the age-seasoned conclusion that my New Year’s resolutions rarely surpass a good beginning, no matter how good my intentions might be.

I wonder why we have such eagerness to reach for new goals on the first day of a new year. Perhaps it is because we are born with instinctive motivation triggered by the ‘unsullied page’. I can, without effort, reach back and reclaim the feeling I always had on the first day of a new school year when I clutched in my hand a new , clean notebook. How very carefully and neatly I penned the first page and how deep was my resolve to carry that same diligence to the last page . It never happened !!

Perhaps the problem is not with our commendable desire for perfection but with the length of our grasp.
God never asks more of us than what we are able to achieve and I read nowhere in scripture where God asks us to reach for a year at a time. The ‘time grasp’ He has put into our hands is one day. “Give us this DAY”, “Sufficient unto the DAY” , etc. So perhaps the key to our success is to live one day at a time… Not a new idea to any of us… but a key that we seem so easily to misplace. Worries, concerns, trouble, demands , disappointments, discontent are always in abundance waiting to snatch the key to success from our hearts.

If we make everyday “the first day of the rest of our lives”, will it change how we do life?
I love Jeremiah’s words in his Lamentations 3:22-24. Here we are told God’s mercy and compassions are “new EVERY morning”. These joyful words of encouragement promise us a ‘new unsullied notebook’ every single morning - not just on the first day of the new year. These words are even more encouraging when we realize that Jeremiah penned these words not after the best days of his life but after his worst… the strength in this promise of God was what kept him secure in the deepest anguish of his life.

So -- my New Year’s resolution this year is to live 2007 ONE day at a time with the assurance that each morning greets me with the promise of God’s mercy and faithfulness to cover every moment of the day and it is in His strength and love that I give my best effort to joyfully live each day in the center of His will.