Tomorrow we leave South Carolina and drive to North Carolina.  South Carolina has been fun, but as the old saying goes, “All good things come to an end.”  Vacations are quickly over.  Children grow up.  Elementary school.  High School.  College.  Thanksgiving Day.  Fourth of July.  New clothes eventually wear out.  The morning sunrise gives way to full daylight.  Kittens become cats and puppies dogs.  Our world is finite.

In the story of the woman at the well, found in John 4, Jesus tells the Samaritan woman,  ‘Everyone who drinks water, from this well, will need more water later. Whoever drinks my water will never need more. My water will be like a stream that gives eternal life’.  I think we have a hard time believing that something won’t end.  We try to make the infinite, finite.  That is what we know so we make it work for us.  We take a small sip of the water Jesus offers and it’s great, so cool and refreshing.  Then we don’t bother to ask for more until we have wandered the desert and are desperately thirsty.

Jesus wants us to drink our eight glasses of living water daily.  It won’t run out.  God’s storehouse is full of everything we need.  If I needed forgiveness yesterday and then need it again today for the same thing, God hasn’t run out of forgiveness, He has plenty just for the asking.  God knows what we need, but sometimes I think He wants to know that we know what we need and are willing to pursue it.  I think we only know what we want and don’t bother to think about what we actually need.  We go about drinking diet sodas when what our body really needs is a big tall glass of living water.

This afternoon Aspen met the kids who live next to Grandmas house.  The little boy and girl were just about Aspens age.  They brought out a blanket and sat on the grass and ate a snack of yogurt and pretzels.  After resupplying their energy the neighbor kids hopped onto their Big Wheels and let Aspen borrow a bicycle and off they peddled down the sidewalk.  I watched them carefully and was surprised to see them veer off the sidewalk and begin to cross the street.  Grandma’s house sits at the end of a cul-de-sac, but I and the neighbor kids grandma, who happened to be watching them, called them back.  Unfortunately, all three children seemed to have lost their ability to hear.  After several stern warnings they turned around and came back.  This scenario repeated itself several times with grandma finally going inside to tell her son that his kids needed him to lay down the law.

No sooner had the law-laying father returned inside than all three children promptly rode their modes of transportation off the sidewalk and onto the street again!  Now this time my patience had run out.  I have this misguided belief that children should listen the first time, every time!  What rock have I been hiding under you ask?  Never mind I won’t answer that, but lucky for Aspen her more patient father arrived outside at just the right moment and enforced his much more lenient opinions of how children should behave.

I groan with aggravation at the kids apparent lack of hearing and response to my requests that are for their best interests and safety.  How can they not listen to me, I wonder in amazement!  Surely they know how dangerous it is to play in the street!

But, then it hits me that God tells me things pretty clearly also and I just make as if I didn’t really hear or hope that He didn’t really mean what He said.  You know what I mean, that little voice you hear telling you not do something and yet you just ignore it and do what you want to anyway.  I’m thankful God’s  patience and understanding more closely resemble Brett’s than mine!

Such a beautiful day to go to the beach!  We managed to snag a parking spot just four cars down from the entrance to the beach.  We grabbed a few beach towels from the back of the car and walked the short distance to the beach with Aspen chattering non-stop the entire way.

Aspen spent the next two hours jumping through the waves and playing with mommy and daddy.  She loved the water but spent most of her time holding hands with one of us.  While packing I had failed to put in my swimsuit so I didn’t want to go out too deep and get my clothes wet.  But Aspen encouraged Brett to take her out deeper and deeper.  She only went deeper though while holding onto her daddy’s hand.  Together they braved the wild surf and you have never seen a child so happy, full of joy and enjoying life.  She kept saying over and over in her five-year old excitement, “This is the bestest day ever!”

Going deeper in our spiritual lives is best accomplished while holding onto our Father in heavens hand.  He leads the way and no matter how deep the water gets as long as we hold His hand we are safe.  Too bad it isn’t as easy for me to believe that as it is for Aspen to believe that Brett will always keep her safe.

But I thank God, who always leads us in victory because of Christ. Wherever we go, God uses us to make clear what it means to know Christ. It’s like a fragrance that fills the air.  2 Corinthians 2:14

I recently read an article about a new e-book entitled, “What do ‘Raw Fooders’ actually eat”?  It follows the daily meals of 48 raw fooders for a week.  Many of these ‘raw fooders’ have written books about the raw food life style.  The article goes on to explain how some of the raw fooders who were approached refused to be followed for a week and have their every meal documented.  Why?  Because despite publicly advocating the raw food lifestyle they don’t always eat everything raw like they tell people to do in the books they write.  Now, I can’t say that I blame them.  If you have ever tried to eat raw or even follow a different diet plan than from what your family and friends follow you will realize how hard it is to stick to a diet plan ALL of the time.

Have you ever put on a different face for people you want to impress while just a short time before you were having an argument with someone in your family?  I remember when my kids were little.  The morning of getting three small children ready for church always proved stressful and I managed to “emphasize” the phrase, “hurry up”  more times than I should have.  Finally I would get everyone in the car with clean clothes, and hair combed.  The drive to church took 20 minutes.  I would drive to church with the same attitude I had left the house with.  About three to five minutes before arriving to church I would mentally rearrange my attitude and walk into church and greet everyone as if my morning had been the best of the entire year!  Smiles and sweetness for everyone.

I finally came to the conclusion that whether or not I became upset before leaving the house things would go as things went and we would arrive to church at the same time whether I said “hurry up” ten times or not.  Also, if I was capable of rearranging my attitude five minutes before arriving before church, why couldn’t I just rearrange my attitude a whole hour before that?

I think sometimes if we were to truly live an authentic lifestyle we would say to the pastor as we shake his hand after the sermon what we say about him just an hour later while eating lunch.  Of course most of us choose to be polite and say, “I loved your sermon today, bless you for all that you do for this church.”

If we let Jesus live in our hearts rather than just pasting Him on the outside we would say at lunch after church on Sunday, “Wasn’t that a great sermon the pastor preached today?  He works so hard for our church we should see how we can help him out.”  Jesus in our hearts will lead us to live the authentic lifestyle we want to live but can’t seem to do on our own.

After I write a blog post, one of several things happens.  First of all before I post anything, my husband Brett assumes the role of editor.  Usually he says, “Great job, shall I post it for you?”  When he says that I have usually already felt like my writing was ready for posting.  Though others times I know before I ask him to read it that something isn’t quite right.  I know that, but one of two things floats around in my brain right about then:  I’m either too tired to spend more time writing a good piece or I’m too lazy.  There have been a few times I’ve written something and wasn’t sure it made any sense at all and Brett assured me it was some of my best writing.  I do realize that the whole world does not read my posts, nor is the whole world interested in the topics I blog about, but I trust Brett to keep me from posting something absolutely no one wants to read. 

At first Brett took on the role of teacher and pointed out what I needed to change and I dutifully, albeit unhappily, went back to pecking at the keys on the keyboard.  Now Brett just asks if I want him to finish writing the post for me.  Of course I do!  When he does I’m always amazed at the perspective that he adds.  My post just went from teetering on the precipice of its last breath to running the race and winning.  He takes my idea, makes it say what I wanted it to say, (or if I had no idea what my point was makes one), and then adds even more definition and color to the story. 

Isn’t that just how our spiritual life grows?  At first we try to do it on our own and sometimes we know something isn’t quite right.  We read the Bible or ask for advice from other Christian friends and keep plugging along.  Then one day the light goes on!  We quit doing it on our own and let God finish writing our story.    Not only does He give us everything we wanted, He adds the stuff we didn’t even know we could have!

Sometimes we feel as if we are just muddling through life, just trying to do the next right thing and wondering why it isn’t working.  But when we are through the mud hole and have made it to the other side we can look back and it all makes sense. 

Sometimes I sit down to write and really have no idea where I’m going.  But since I committed to writing a daily blog, I take a small something, and begin to write.  As I write new ideas pop into my head and before I know it the entire piece is written. 

Just like this entire blog: Today is my 210th consecutive daily post, mostly spiritual allegories that I have drawn from  my daily experiences.  But when I first started posting blogs 210 days ago, most of those experiences hadn’t even happened yet.  God leads us and grows our lives the same way, one step and one day at a time.  If I would have just posted one blog and then given up, my blog would be pretty small, but just like spending day after day writing has creating 210 posts, spending day after day with Jesus grows our spiritual life and comprehension to a place we never even knew existed.

If your friends were able to walk up to the front door of your heart and knock, would they find that Jesus opened the door?  Or would they just find a picture of Jesus taped to outside of the door?

Aspens first phrase began with the two words, “I want”, then she proceeded to add the word or two that described what she wanted.  It certainly was a useful first phrase.  Within about two weeks though she switched from “I want”, to “I need”.  She was around a year and a half when she did this.  But, she still feels as though she “needs” everything that she wants. 

I think as adults we often get our needs and wants confused as well.  We need Jesus inside our hearts, but most of the time it seems that we have our hearts as full of junk, that we think we need to keep us safe, as the garage or the kitchen junk drawer.  Don’t feel as though you can’t invite Jesus on over to your heart until you have cleaned up the mess.  We can never clean like Jesus does.  He has the most powerful window cleaner ever made.  Once he cleans away the grime we are able to see clearly.  His brand of disinfectant will kill the germs of sin with a single spray!  His formula for drains will clear away emotional blocks that will allow us to be the people He created us to be.

Live free today!  Let Jesus into your heart.  Living with junk on the inside while we paste a picture of Jesus on the outside gets us nothing but a  heart too heavy to dance.  We are only capable of flying through the air to previously unattainable heights when Jesus sets us free!

I went grocery shopping today. I typically drive about 30 minutes to a neighboring town and go to the same three stores for groceries.  Costco, Mom’s Organic Market, and The Common Market (another health food store).  I go to these three stores because I know that I will find exactly what I am looking for there.  Granted, the health food stores are by far more expensive than if I shopped at Wal-Mart, but they have what I need, what I am looking for.

Sometimes I think people get a wrong impression of the Christian life.  It seems like we can sometimes get stuck in the “green pastures and still waters” perspective and believe that’s what becoming a Christian feels like all the time.  I think becoming and living as a Christian is more on the edge than behind the hedge, at least an authentic one.

What does it require to live an authentic Christian life?  Risk!  Lots of it.  One of the risks we are asked to take centers on giving up what consumes me that doesn’t come from God.  Worry.  Fear.  Doubt. Self-sufficiency.  Sometimes these can be very hard to let go of because they are so familiar to us.  Familiar is comfortable, even if it’s something we know isn’t good for us, it’s better than letting go and diving into the unknown.

Following God isn’t cheap–It’s the most expensive thing you can do.   We can feel like we are pretty well off, that we live a pretty good life and have a pretty good outlook on things.  But God lays it out for us in Revelation when He tells us that, though we think we are rich, we are really poor, though we believe we live a good life, our righteousness is dirty rags, and our intelligence that gives us vision, is really blindness.  So then God says, “It’s OK, though.  I have eye salve that will heal your vision, white garments you can wear, and my blessings to give you as riches.”  It takes a lot of risk to believe that.  It takes even more risk to act on it.  And the greatest risk to give up all the “fool’s gold” in our lives that we so desperately cling to, and trade it in for what makes us truly rich: a one-on-one connection and relationship with Jesus.  And that’s only the first risk in living an authentic Christian life.  Tomorrow, we’ll talk about Risk #2: The truth that sets you free.

Solomon said, “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths” (Proverbs 3:5,6, KJV).  Notice what this says, “WE trust in the Lord, and then HE directs our paths.  Risk is the only way to truly know God.  Unless you risk trusting Him, He is not real to you.

This morning I poured water into a small kettle, brought it to a boil and added oatmeal.  Five minutes later I spooned it into a bowl with flowers on it and proceeded to choose my condiments.  I picked up the salt shaker and added a few shakes.  I opened the fridge and reached for the cream and bottle of pure maple syrup.  I love cream and maple syrup on my oatmeal, but thinking of my health I limited myself to a small splash of each.  I ate a few bites and decided it just wasn’t worth eating unless I poured on a generous helping of cream and an even more generous amount of maple syrup.  I sat down once again and truly enjoyed every bite of maple syrup and cream with my oatmeal.

I think my actions and life in general might be a little more palatable to others if I just added a gallon or so of sweetness to my actions rather than a stingy little dab.

“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”  (Galatians 5:22)  If you stop to think about it fruit is sweet, so we could look at this text and say that the fruit of the Spirit in our lives will provide the sweetness of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

This morning Aspen requested a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for breakfast.   A couple of hours later she asked for a completely different breakfast while her sandwich laid untouched on the plate.  I told her I would not fix her anything else until she ate at least part of the sandwich.  Shortly after that she brightly ran up to me and told me she had eaten her sandwich.  I said, “No you didn’t.  Where is the sandwich?”  She sweetly replied while rubbing her belly,  “In my tummy”.  I glanced over at the kitchen trash can and noticed that the previously open lid was now closed.  I knew that I hadn’t closed the lid and that it was highly unlikely that either her father or older brother had bothered to close it. Now having  raised to adulthood three other children, and having worked with teenagers for six years I quickly deduced that she had thrown away the sandwich and closed the lid to hide the evidence.  Feeling like Sherlock Holmes I walked over to the trash can and opened the lid.  There lying on top of all the other trash was the evidence.  The uneaten peanut butter and jelly sandwich. 

I am reminded of the text found in John 8:32, “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”  When I opened the trash can lid I revealed the truth.  When the Holy Spirit shines his light of truth on the sinfulness of my heart, I have the opportunity to choose to admit my fault and live once again in the freedom of truth. The freedom to call God, “Abba, Father”.  No man is truly free, but he in whose heart the power of sin is destroyed, and who has received the Spirit of adoption, through which he cries, Abba! Father! (Romans 8:15)  Christ in the gospel offers us freedom, He has power to do this, and those who Christ makes free are free indeed.  (John 8:36)

At times I am amazed at what passes for power in our culture.  I read a news report about how twenty some people were injured at a motivational conference by attempting to walk over burning hot coals.  At first I thought it was going to be some out in left field, offshoot kind of charismatic kook who suckered a few people into trying this.  I was a bit dismayed when I learned it was a multi-day conference held by a popular and seemingly respected motivational speaker with published books, DVD’s, and CD’s who has created and successfully grown his own personal power motivational organization.  Six thousand people  were in attendance.  They had set up 12 lanes of hot coals and encouraged all six thousand people to end the first day of the conference by walking across the hot coals.  When asked to comment on the event and the injuries, the organization said, “The intention of the event is to get your focus and your attention away from that and look into the power within yourself and focus on just walking on the fire.” Listening to some of the reactions from participants and how excited and “sold out” they were to this experience made me feel sad.

Now, I understand that I do not know hardly anything about the teachings and philosophy of this organization that promises to bring out the inner power just waiting for us all to find in ourselves.  But the lesson of this exercise seems to be that if you can muster the strength, focus and resolve to walk across burning coals in your bare feet you can do anything. I must heartily disagree.  I think it’s far easier to walk bare foot across hot coals than wrought true change in your own heart.

I think most motivational speakers get it wrong from square one.  Their premise seems to be that we all possess the strength necessary to change our lives and become the best version of ourselves, which actually lives inside us.  Evidence of this is your ability to put your negative thinking aside and utilize the performance principles of their philosophy to perform feats of personal strength such as walking across hot coals in your bare feet.  The key word here is, “perform”.

I do believe that many people can change their actions with a lot of effort and, yes, practicing personal motivational techniques.  The problem is that what’s changing is your actions, and not your heart.  Just because an alcoholic stops drinking doesn’t mean he is healed.  To stop drinking is only the beginning of the journey, not the goal. Another problem with focusing on changing your actions, and even the way you think, doesn’t really bring lasting change.  It can bring temporary change, even temporary peace and joy, but if the heart is still sick then the changes will fade.

The real thing needed here, I believe, is the strength to surrender.  Surrender to the truth that I, on my own, cannot change my own heart, I need help.  Surrender to the truth that the only power capable of re-creating my heart is the One who created it in the first place.  It takes the power of humility and surrender to NOT depend on myself or my own personal strength, but give control of my heart to God.  Believe me, many people would rather walk across hot coals in bare feet, and suffer the pain and scars from attempting personal feats of power,  than to surrender.  Ellen White got it right when she defined a miracle as the true changing of a person’s heart and life.

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. Ezekiel 36:26