Sister Dust

One Teacher, Many Brothers

2006-06-23T17:02:00.000-07:00

God blesses those who realize their need for him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is given to them. (NLT - Matthew 5: 3)

God did not call me to a man or to a denomination. He called me to Himself. He invited me to have relationship with Him.

What does this call, this invitation, involve? Most importantly, it involves loving Him and all that He is with everything I am and have. Secondly, it involves loving all that He loves.

My relationship with Him calls me into relationship with those He loves. Thus, I am called to community.

After studying Jesus' model of community with His disciples, I realized that there are some lessons that just cannot be learned at home with family. These lessons can only be learned among one's peers.

It is in a community of believers that I learn how to live the way Jesus taught us to live. It is there that I see the living, breathing grace and character of God. If I can live it there, I can live it anywhere.

Between Jesus' death and the Last Day, we have the opportunity, no the privilege, no the blessing to live in community with other believers. Sadly, we too often do not recognize this relationship with other believers as what it is - a gift. More often than not, we take these relationships for granted.

How blessed it is to sing together. How blessed it is to pray together. How blessed it is to support one another. How blessed it is to share a meal with each other, to laugh with each other, to remember the goodness and faithfulness of God.

We just don't know the true value of something until we no longer have it. Relationship with other believers is the grace of God upon us. It is one of the ways God strengthens and enables us to stand and be His people. My brother or sister's whisper of encouragement in my ear is nothing but the sweet breath of God.

Are you looking for the prophetic? They are those around you and me who speak the precious word of God. Are you looking for the healers? They are those sitting around you and me week after week with arms that hug and mouths that pray.

Are you looking for a miracle? What could be more of a miracle than God bringing together a diverse group of people whose lives have been radically changed by His love and who in turn embrace all who walk through their doors? That ragtag group of people is Christ's living, breathing body.

Today, I hear so many people saying,"God called me to . . ." Maybe He did; maybe He didn't. That's between them and Him. However, after forty something years of being a believer (some years I believed more than others), I cannot escape the thought that our highest call is to love Him with everything we are and have and to love what He loves.

What does God love? I know that He loves His son, and He loves the world because He sent His son so that we could be saved. He also loves what His son loves, and Jesus loves His bride, His church. Therefore, I am called to love God, to love all the people of the world, to love Jesus, and to love the church.

I am so thankful that Jesus has a body of believers here in this world. It is in this community that I learn and am equipped to go out and love the world to Jesus. It is in this community that I am healed physically and emotionally and strengthened and encouraged to be what He desires me to be. It is in this community that I feel the safety to try something new because failure is no longer a four-letter word. In this community the Beatitudes become alive and I learn how to show mercy and be humble, how to comfort and rejoice, how to long for justice and purity, how to be a peacemaker. In this place, I begin to know who I really am.

Thank you, God, for your son and for your holy spirit and for your love. Thank you so much for those you've placed around me who love me as you do, "just as I am," and who love me enough to speak into my life. Thank you for the gift of community and all the "gracelings" that come with it. May we never take God or His community of believers for granted.

Gardens

2006-05-25T10:45:00.000-07:00

I love gardens. I love visiting gardens and enjoying other people's creativity and expertise.

I also have a wee bit of a garden myself. I bought some of my plants, but some of them were given to me by folks who also love to garden. Some of my garden I engineered myself, and some of it was a labor of love by friends who wanted me to feel better during a really hard time.

I love what part of a garden I do have. It's a work in progress, just like me . . . and you. I absolutely go bonkers when something blooms. (I wonder if God goes bonkers when we finally bloom.) While some flowers bloom early, others bloom late, but both are beautiful. (Just like us.) While some plants grow best out in the full sun, others need the shade, but both are fully alive. (Again, like us.)

I love the aliveness of a garden - the songs of the birds, their antics in the birdbath, the hum of the hummingbirds, the breeze, the shade, the colors, the shapes, the smells, the textures, the rocks, the moss, the birdhouses, the creak of the swing, the music of the wind chimes, the chirp of the crickets at dusk, the stars and moon at night, the warmth of the sun by day. I think I like the colors and the fragrances best of all.

I especially love the garden in the wee hours of the morning when the sun begins to visit. I also enjoy it in the aftermath of a gentle summer rain.

I've been thinking about gardens today because of a verse I read recently - Song of Solomon 5:1. "I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride."

In this verse, the Lover - Jesus - is speaking. That made me wonder about the gardens that He loved. I thought of three.

Eden, or "Paradise Lost"
Solomon's garden, or "Paradisde Delayed"
Gethsemane, or "Paradise Regained"

When I think about how much I enjoy my own garden, I can minutely understand how much pleasure Eden must have given Jesus. I can't even begin to imagine how He must have felt when man sinned and had to be locked out of Eden. Oh, what loss!

When I think of Gethsemane, I am humbled. Oh, what Jesus suffered there. But, He must have loved that place because here He humbled Himself and said His final resounding "Yes!" His yes opened doors for us that nothing and no one could ever again shut. His yes ushered in reconciliation and renewal and restoration and redemption and heaven. Oh, what gain!

Somewhere between the loss of Eden and the blessings of Gethsemane exists Solomon's garden - "Paradise Delayed." In this garden, we now live. Here a continual divine dance called hide-and-seek transpires. He is the Lover, hidden in the garden. We are His beloveds desperately trying to grab hold of Him. This holy chase lies between His promise and its fulfillment. Oh, the agony of the delay!

Some days, I'm really impatient. Well, most days.

Thank you, Jesus, for the invitation and the promise. Maybe next year in the new Jerusalem.

Waiting

2006-05-05T14:04:00.000-07:00

Spending time waiting is so much a part of our everyday lives. We wait for the coffee to be ready in the morning. We wait at traffic lights on our way to and from work. We wait for our tax refunds to find their way to our mailbox. We wait on people to return our calls or emails. Students wait to hear the results of their exams. Moms and dads wait for babies to be born . . . to be potty trained . . . to start school . . . and to grow up. So much of each day is consumed by waiting!

Not all "waitings" are alike. Some are frustrating and irritating and could be prevented. Some just happen; they're a necessary part of existing on this planet, like potholes in the road. However, some are filled with joyful anticipation. First comes the desire; then comes the fulfillment of the desire after a time of . . . you guessed it . . . waiting. Remember the adage: Anything worth having is worth waiting for.

Waiting is also not limited to the earthly realm. It leaks into the spiritual. In the NIV alone there are 141 references to waiting. (Yes, I have too much time on my hands.) Many of those references involve the "great men and women" of the Bible waiting. One involves creation waiting. "And the rest involve us. Right?" Wrong.

The greatest "waiter" of all is God. Many, many moons ago, He got the whole shebang started and is currently sitting outside of time and space waiting for everything He's ordained to come to pass. Now, that's waiting. That kind of waiting involves supernatural patience and understanding and love. Wow! What amazing love!

The other day I discovered a "waiting" verse that moved me to tears. It's Isaiah 30:18.

But God's not finished. He's waiting around to be gracious to you. He's gathering strength to show mercy to you. God takes the time to do everything right - everything. Those who wait around for Him are the lucky ones. (Message)

The NIV says that "He longs to be gracious to you."

His desire is to bless us; the fulfillment of that desire is "to bring many sons to glory." (Heb. 2:10) In between God's desire and glory is Him . . . waiting. He waits and "doesn't shut 'er down" so that He can be gracious and merciful and compassionate to us . . . to me . . . to you.

Aren't we the lucky ones?