The Lord is at Hand

This morning, I read some verses in Philippians 4. I noticed that there was a line of commands, followed by a promise, and sandwiched right in the middle of there was a 'random' statement. Here they are, so you can see what I mean:

-Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice.
-Let your moderation be known unto all men.
-The Lord is at hand.
-Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
-And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Maybe they could have been split up into more 'commands', but I let the periods be the breaking points. So the three commands are: Rejoice, be moderate (or more specifically, let your moderation be known), be careful for nothing (but let your requests... etc).

The promise if we do this is: The peace of God shall keep your hearts and minds.

And that statement: The Lord is at hand.

I don't know that I really know WHY this command is significant, but it seemed almost out of place to me. Obviously, it gives weight to these commands, it gives a reason for them. Our time here is short; the Lord is returning any day, therefore... But I don't know that I have a great understanding about it. It's just something that stuck out to me as I was reading, so I wrote it down in my journal and went on with my day thinking about it in the back of my mind.

Later, on my lunch break, I pulled out a book I've been reading, called What's It Like to be Married to Me? by Linda Dillow. It's a great book (I love reading marriage books... even though we haven't been married a year yet and our marriage isn't on the rocks or anything, it's still so encouraging to read books specifically written to wives and see ways that I can correct my attitude and be a better wife!)

But this is something that Linda wrote that caught my attention, especially in light of the verses I read this morning: "Your brain is a fabulous computer, capable of recording eight hundred memories per second for seventy-five years without ever getting tired. Amazing! God's Word says that what you feed into your mind will come out in your life (Prov. 23:7). So, if you go to a Sophisticated Venting Club and train your mind to think negative thoughts about your husband, if you meditate on all you don't like about him, if you fill your mind and heart with garbage about your man, garbage will be printed out - gripe, grumble, murmur, and vent will fill the pages of your life."

Isn't that kind of the whole point of these verses? Maybe not in the exact marriage application, but in the "you are what you think" application? For me to rejoice, for me to be moderate, for me to be careful for nothing but bring my requests to God with thanksgiving, it all starts with what I am thinking about. It all starts with my perspective (The Lord is at hand) and letting that permeate into my thoughts. That will effect these actions in my life (a natural by-product, you might say) and bring about the promise that God gives: peace that passes all understanding.

I am so comforted today thinking of this truth:

"He who cares for all the works of His hand, cares with infinite tenderness for the children of His love, and thinks nothing which concerns them too small or too trivial to notice."
Susannah Spurgeon

There is nothing in particular that concerns me today, but a myriad of everyday problems and worries. Yet, how wonderful to know that even these things are of concern to my Heavenly Father, simply because He loves me so! I am so glad that I don't have a God that is boxed in by limitations, that is hindered in helping me because He is concerned with someone else.

He is capable of handling my small matters as well as my large ones. What a comfort!

Why I Write

I borrowed one of my sister-in-law's books, and found At the Edge of the Village to be a quick and enjoyable read, giving one missionary wife's memories of living on the Ivory Coast. A very interesting and funny book, as well as a good look into African culture in that area of the continent.

I came across this little passage as she was writing about each of her children, and I really liked the way she expressed it. This is one of the reasons that I write... to capture a moment or a person with words, just like you would with a camera.

"There are certain fleeting moments in time that, if stopped and held, say so much about a person - actions that bring personality to life and render it special. I love to capture such moments, no matter how small or mundane, like a camera imprinting a scene and immortalizing it forever in my mind." -Lisa Leidenfrost, At the Edge of the Village

Crazy week.

Started off with a good reminder in the form of my Sunday school kids' memory verse, "What manner of man is this that even the winds and the sea obey him?" What is there to fear when He is in control of all - even the winds, the sea, the animals, and the rocks obey Him. Shouldn't we be just as quick with our obedience?

Monday was the funeral for Bro. Purks. Many tears and much laughter. He was a servant of God who was funny, challenging, and will be sorely missed. I spent a couple days in MD with a friend, and we had a good time catching up, talking, and shopping. As an aside, the public library in Frederick, MD is the coolest library I have ever been to. I want to move to Frederick just so I can visit their library.

Back to work on Thursday and then an impromptu sleepover with my niece and nephew. We had hot dogs for supper, went out for ice cream, painted our toenails (not my nephew, obviously), played games, watched Winnie-the-Pooh, read stacks of books, and eventually they crashed in their sleeping bags on my floor. Grandma made waffles for breakfast, and then we worked on some 'crafts.'

Starbucks started making their Pumpkin Spice this week, which made me so very happy. In the winter, I feel like a kid in the candy store with all the incredible holiday flavors. Unfortunately, I missed all the Christmas flavors last year and will again this year, so I'm taking advantage of the beautiful Pumpkin Spice, even if I have to have it iced because it's still so hot out. :)

Today is another major push to get things cleaned out. I can't even believe how much we have already gone through and how much there is left to be done. We are now at the 5 week countdown, but there are some significant (time-consuming) events between now and then - another trip for my parents to take, Gospel meetings at LVBC, and a bunch of appointments to make and people to meet. I am caught between wanting the days to slow down so I can savor each moment, and wanting the days to hurry by so we can get to Africa already.

After getting rid of all my craft supplies a couple weeks ago, I felt the urge to do "something." So I pulled out what I had, and made a couple small things.

Not much... sewing a small zippered bag with three interior pockets, lining a cool box that I found (still don't know what to put in it), and getting a new journal ready.

From inside the journal:

"Triumph, O my faith!
All things are Christ's, and Christ is God's, and God, Christ, and all things are thine.
Time is His, and in it I have my numbered years;
The air is His, and in it I breathe;
The world, and on it I dwell;
Its fullness, and I am fed;
Grace is His, and in it I stand;
Faith, and by it I overcome the world;
Tribulations are from Him, and in them I glory;
Perfection is His, and towards it I press;
Death is His, and by it I arrive home;
Heaven is His, and there is my mansion;
Eternity is His, and there is my treasure and glory."
-James Meikle, Solitude Sweetened


From the front cover:

"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes." -Marcel Proust

That is one of my all-time favorite quotes. Even though it seems like I am always skipping off to new landscapes, it really is true that changing your perspective on the current situation can be just as revealing as changing your location in life.

‎"Once we have set ourselves to be pilgrims and strangers on the earth, which is what Christians are meant to be, it is incongruous for us to continue to insist upon the sort of security the world tries to guarantee. Our security lies not in protecting ourselves from suffering, but in putting ourselves fully into the hands of God. The desire for physical and material security makes us sly and hard. No. We must be like little children. The child in its father's arms is not worried. It lies quietly at rest because it trusts its father.

“We disobey sometimes because we say it is impossible to do what God asks. Impossible? Perhaps what we mean is impossible to do that and keep our security, impossible to obey without tremendous cost, or at least tremendous risk. Where, then, will we find safety? Is it likely that we will find it elsewhere than in the arms of the Father?"

-Elisabeth Elliot

"Sitting down and looking up at the sky for a few minutes - not any particular part of the sky, but just at the sky in general - at the vast, dizzying, empty sky of Botswana, cut human problems down to size. It was not possible to tell what was in that sky, of course, at least during the day; but at night it revealed itself to be an ocean of stars, limitless, white in its infinity; so large, so large, that any of our problems, even the greatest of them, was a small thing."

From The Good Husband of Zebra Drive, Chapter Six, by Alexander McCall Smith

The Elephant's Child

An excerpt from "The Elephant's Child" by Rudyard Kipling that reminds me so much of my nephew!

I keep six honest serving-men

(They taught me all I knew);

Their names are What and Why and When

And How and Where and Who.

I send them over land and sea,

I send them east and west;

But after they have worked for me,

I give them all a rest.

I let them rest from nine till five,

For I am busy then,

As well as breakfast, lunch and tea,

For they are hungry men.

But different folk have different views,

I know a person small -

She keeps ten million serving men, 

Who get no rest at all!

She sends 'em abroad on her own affairs, 

From the second she opens her eyes - 

One million Hows, two million Wheres,

And seven million Whys!

-Rudyard Kipling

Yesterday, my nieces and nephew were over for the afternoon. My nephew was given a green popsicle after supper, and about halfway through, he remarked, "MMmm... this is a good zucchini popsicle!" Apparently zucchini is the first thing he thinks of when he thinks of green things! :) When I explained that it was lime, not zucchini, he started in with the questions - Why are fruits different than vegetables? Why are zucchinis green? How do they make popsicles? How do they get the wooden stick in the middle without breaking it? Why do popsicles melt?......

Loss: A Prelude to Life

"As I look back on that time, I think it was Lesson One for me in the school of faith. That is, it was my first experience of having to bow down before that which I could not possibly explain. Usually we need not bow. We can simply ignore the unexplainable because we have other things to occupy our minds. We sweep it under the rug. We evade the questions.

"Faith's most severe tests come not when we see nothing, but when we see a stunning array of evidence that seems to prove our faith vain. If God were God, if He were omnipotent, if He had cared, would this have happened? Is this that I face now the ratification of my calling, the reward of obedience? One turns in disbelief again from the circumstances and looks into the abyss. But in the abyss there is only blackness, no glimmer of light, no answering echo...

"It was a long time before I came to the realization that it is in our acceptance of what is given that God gives Himself. Even the Son of God had to learn obedience by the things He suffered. He had come for only one purpose: 'Lo, I come, in the volume of the book it is written of me, to do thy will, O God.' And His reward was desolation, crucifixion...

"Each separate experience of individual stripping we may learn to accept as a fragment of the suffering Christ bore when He took it all. 'Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.' This grief, this sorrow, this total loss that empties my hands and breaks my heart, I may, if I will, accept, and by accepting it, I find in my hands something to offer. And so I give it back to Him, who in mysterious exchange gives Himself to me...

"It was only gradually during the months that followed that I saw that to God nothing is finally lost. All the Scriptural metaphors about the death of the seed that falls into the ground, about losing one's life, about becoming the least in the kingdom, about the world's passing away - all these go on to something unspeakably better and more glorious. Loss and death are only the preludes to gain and life...

"Faith, prayer, and obedience are our requirements. We are not offered in exchange immunity and exemption from the world's woes. What we are offered has to do with another world altogether."

-My favorite excerpts from These Strange Ashes, by Elisabeth Elliot, emphasis mine

Living upon the earth, citizens of Heaven

Up to my ears in dusty books, and this passage has quite caught my attention. I keep coming back to reread it.

“The Christians are not distinguished from other men by country, by language, nor by civil institutions. For they neither dwell in cities by themselves, nor use a peculiar tongue, nor lead a singular mode of life. They dwell in the Grecian or barbarian cities, as the case may be; they follow the usages of the country in dress, food, and the other affairs of life. Yet they present a wonderful and confessedly paradoxical conduct. They dwell in their own native lands, but as strangers. They take part in all things, as citizens; and they suffer all things, as foreigners. Every foreign country is a fatherland to them, and every native land is foreign. They marry, like all others; they have children; but they do not cast away their offsprings. They have the table in common, but not wives. They are in the flesh, but do not live after the flesh. They live upon the earth, but are citizens of heaven. They obey the existing laws, and excel the laws by their lives. They love all, and are persecuted by all. They are unknown, and yet they are condemned. They are killed and made alive. They are poor and make many rich. They lack all things, and in all things abound. They are reproached, and glory in their reproaches. They are calumniated, and are justified. They are cursed, and they bless. They receive scorn, and they give honor. They do good, and are punished as evil-doers. When punished, they rejoice, as being made alive. By the Jews they are attacked as aliens, and by the Greek persecuted; and the cause of the enmity their enemies cannot tell.

“In short, what the soul is to the body, the Christians are in the world. The soul is diffused through all the members of the body, and the Christians are spread through the cities of the world. The soul dwells in the body, but it is not of the body; so the Christians dwell in the world, but are not of the world. The soul, invisible, keeps watch in the visible body; so also the Christians are seen to live in the world, for their piety is invisible. The flesh hates and wars against the soul; suffering no wrong from it, but because it resists fleshly pleasures; and the world hates the Christians with no reason, but they resist its pleasures. The soul loves the flesh and members, by which it is hated; so the Christians love their haters. The soul is enclosed in the body, but holds the body together; so the Christians are detained in the world as in a prison; but they contain the world. Immortal, the soul dwells in the mortal body; so the Christians dwell in the corruptible, but look for incorruptible in heaven. The soul is the better for restriction in food and drink; and the Christians increase, though daily punished. This lot God has assigned to the Christians in the world; and it cannot be taken away from them.” 

(Epistola ad Diognetum, written early second century, quote taken from a copy published in 1852.)