Monthly Archives: May 2013

May12

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2 Corinthians 4:6-9 NLT

6 For God, who said, “Let there be light in the darkness,” has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ.
7 We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.
8 We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair.9 We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed.

May7

Spring Faith

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This winter had been an unusually long one. Seven inches of snow on April 19, four on the 23rd, four more May 3. It hasn’t been a record-setting winter but it has challenged we Minnesotans who have been indoors since October to keep believing. Will we ever need pedicures again?

I knew that Spring would come. But the timing was tricky. Easter dresses were worn with winter coats and (horror of horror) sandals with wool socks. We had snow ice cream with our peeps. And  tricked out cute little dogs with Easter bonnets and matching insulated snow booties.

One woman at church told me her kids were asking to put the Christmas tree up for Arbor Day. Oh ye’ of little faith.

Spring always follows Winter. There is always the budding out of trees, the smell of fresh-cut grass, and the eye-swelling pollen (to make it even more real). I have lived long enough now to know that season follows season without fail. I don’t have to spend time worrying about it.

Faith in God is eerily similar. We know He is there. We know His answers will come. We know the sunshine of His love will warm us after a cold winter of trial. But we grow tired of waiting. Those with little faith start doubting He will show up at all. We want tulips and redbuds and daffodils and we want them now.

And if all we get is more spiritual snow, we lose faith. We turn to fake messages as fast as Snookie bakes on a fake tan. We grow as cold as International Falls in January.

This year I am going for Spring faith. Whether my spiritual winter is short or agonizingly long, I will trust in God’s timing. It is perfect. He’s never skipped out yet and He never will. He is faithful season after season without fail.

We threw open the windows today and rejoiced in the soft Spring breezes and fragile green buds (and the invention of Zertec) that have finally shown up. Spring has come at last. Hallelujah!
first daffadil of spring

Look, the winter is past,
and the rains are over and gone. The flowers are springing up,
the season of singing birds has come,
and the cooing of turtledoves fills the air.
Song of Solomon 2:11-12 NLT

May4

Disappearing Effect

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My husband, son, and I went to a cheap movie the other day. One of those places that runs commercials for a long time before the movie starts. One of the repeating commercials was for a show on the National Geographic Channel, Brain Game.

YellowdotsThe commercial talked about how our brains play tricks on us. To help explain the phenomenon a graphic was put on the screen with several small colored dots. We were told to stare at one dot. As we did, the other dots disappeared. If we didn’t blink or change our focus too much it looked like the dot we were looking at was the only dot on the screen. But when we changed focus and looked at the whole screen, the other dots were right where they had always been. (See a sample of this effect here.)

Tricksy it was!

The spokesman said that our brains will just stop seeing a group of objects when we stare too long at one item. It simply removes the others from our sight.

Does that scare anyone else? (Although I admit I tried staring at my knees hoping the fat on my thighs would disappear.)

It made me wonder if we do the same thing spiritually. If we stare so long at what we want–food, sex, success, beauty–do we stop seeing our blessings? When we concentrate intently upon our unhappiness, pain, unjust treatment, do we miss happiness, healing, or mercy? Are our minds tricking us into thinking that the less urgent, the less immediately thrilling, the less glamorous areas of life have no value?

What if one of the dots that disappears is our kids? Our friends? Our spouses? Our responsibilities? Our talents?

What if one of the disappearing dots is God?

On the other hand, what if we focus our gaze on God? If we are looking only at Him we can see the same disappearing effect. He takes away our worries, anxieties, jealousies, addictions. As long as we look to Him, trust Him, He will wipe away dots of sin for once and for all. He will remove them from our sight.

That is a disappearing effect that I will tune in to see.


He has removed our sins as far from us
as the east is from the west.
Psalm 103:12 NLT