by Rebecca | Feb 21, 2022 | Bible Verses, Christian Life
Middle school is kind of the worst, right? I don’t know what your middle school experience was like, but mine left me labeled a goodie-two-shoes and I didn’t understand why being a person who generally tried to be a good person was a bad thing.
In high school, I eventually found a group of people who I had good, clean fun with but the label never left me. I found lots of people like me in my Christian college, but there were still people who kept their distance just because I generally tried to follow Christ.
I don’t know if you’ve ever attended a Christian college or what your experience was, but I made good friends there. My sorority house roomie was like me: choosing a clean lifestyle. But some of my friends were still not quite seeking Christ as central in their lives. I watched their lives and mostly just stored my observations in the back of my mind as I, too, was trying to figure out a lot of things in my life.
I was still a goodie-two-shoes. I learned much later (like within the last couple of years) that some of my challenging relationships were difficult, in part, because my friends were trying to get away from what I was representing to them. To be transparent, I don’t pretend to assume I was perfect, but I did represent that good life they were trying to avoid. At least one has indicated this to be the case.
And then…
Thanks to the wonders of social media, I’ve had the opportunity to see friends from middle school, high school, and college continue to grow up. Some of them have completely turned their lives around and are seeking Christ as central to their lives as they begin families or go through other struggles in adult life.
I. Am. Thrilled.
They don’t know how often I cry tears of joy that they have learned why Jesus was so important to me when we were doing life together. I mean it. I cried when one friend from high school was baptized a few years ago. Another friend recently reached out to me about her desire to raise her daughters in a place that encourages women to follow Christ in deep relationship instead of catty girl environments. I rejoiced when a college friend responded and apologized to me recently as I reached out to her to talk our relationship from back then.
I cry now when I think about these sweet women and I pray they will continue to seek Christ as central to their lives.
Honestly:
It’s really what I want for all of us. I want to do it better. I want them to do it better. I want to help others do it better.
I’m not claiming to be an old lady, here, but Titus 2.3-5 says that older women are to teach younger women to lead holy lives so that the word of God isn’t reviled. I’ve been [imperfectly] seeking Christ in all areas of my life for over 25 years. He’s everything to me. He’s good and truth and holy and firm and loving. He’s gentle but He teaches me hard lessons when I refuse to learn them the easy way. And I learn to keep loving His truth.
If you feel like you wasted high school, college, or young adulthood by not seeking Christ, sister, it’s not too late. He’s waiting for you to decide He’s worth being first in your life.
by Rebecca | Dec 13, 2021 | Christian Life
The other morning, I was pulling out of my garage, backing up into the road, and pushed a simple button to close the garage door. I was imagining how people felt back in the day when garage door openers were invented. For them, suddenly it was simpler to get the garage door open. No more opening the car door, getting out, closing the garage door with the whole weight of your own body, walking back to the car, getting in, and closing the door.
Simply pushed a button.
I do it about every day. While I feel honored and blessed to have a garage, the act of pushing the button is not exactly something I consider delightful every day–especially when the button is being difficult.
One of my main goals in life is simplicity. I like to be efficient and allow myself to spend time rather than waste it. Don’t get me wrong, I love lots of things and keep myself busy. But simplicity is something I aim for. During the Christmas season, I say, “Alexa, turn on the trees,” and my Christmas trees turn on. I do a little work at the beginning of every year to make my work year go more smoothly and I make my own freezer meals for lunches once every 6 to 8 weeks so I don’t have to think hard about lunch on a daily basis. I’m a big fan of working in spurts.
My phone houses our family calendar and I use it to socialize with friends far away; I order clothes and toys and groceries so that I don’t have to spend loads of time shopping in stores.
I’m on a never-ending quest to simplify my life without making myself bored.
Easy is Unattainable
But here’s the thing: No matter how simple we make our lives–no matter how much technology helps me to simplify tasks and things that I love to do, life will never be easy.
Aren’t we all trying to make life easy? Aside from a those people who are gluttons for punishment, I think one thing we Americans try to do is to find the easy life.
How can I make enough money that it won’t be so hard to make ends meet?
Does anyone have any easy meals I can make with almost no prep on weeknights when everything is crazypants?
When will this sports season be over so my kids are just home at night instead of going a million places?
How much longer will this pain make it almost impossible for me to get through my day without losing it?
When will my boss see that I’m working hard and give me that promotion to that well-paid, easier level of work?
When will my toddler get through this terrible stage of fits so we can just enjoy our easy lives together?
And endlessly more
I’d venture to say that just about all of us are asking these types of questions and so many more. We could add loads of questions to this list that show we’re looking for things to be easy–or at least less difficult.
The longer I live, the more I realize that life is not going to just get easy. Not all of it, anyway. Our society becomes more and more complex by the minute. And the more aware we become of everything, the bigger the hard becomes.
Current events present challenging problems that Alexa can’t solve. Raising children is a process so complex that we’d welcome voice control. I wish we could push a button that fixes all our relationship problems.
But let’s remember the hope we have in Jesus.
Philippians 3.20-21 says, “But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.”
We’re playing the long game here. No matter how difficult and complex our lives become here on earth, we can be sure that this isn’t the end game. This is the short game. We’re playing the long game.
In the mean time, we can have hope that the evil, the struggle, the stress that we have in this life will be gone. It will end. And in the mean time, we can rely on Jesus to be everything we depend on. He’s our provider, comforter, healer, lover of our souls, friend, protector, guide, strength, and more.
Live may get simple for some of us. Simple, not easy.
by Rebecca | Nov 29, 2021 | Christian Life
On my way home from work today, my husband texted me.
We had been talking about buying a TV on Black Friday or Cyber Monday but I hadn’t pulled the trigger on anything yet. He found one and ordered it. He wrote, “So, I think I can fit the TV in my car and pick it up tomorrow at 1pm. Or would you like me to see if you have a bigger trunk opening and schedule pickup for tomorrow at 6pm?”
I was driving; I genuinely try to avoid texting and driving. My car read me the text and I was chomping at the bit to reply. I’m, like, 99% good at leaving the phone out of my hand while driving. And since I don’t have voice-to-text features very handy on my car I waited. I kept waiting for a red light. I have plenty of traffic lights on the way home every day. And I bet you could guess what happened: I didn’t get one single red light for the major stretch of my way home.
Of course.
It took a while before I finally got to a red light so I could send back a one-liner: “Either way works for me.”
Red Lights and Analogies
I know it sounds crazy, but I firmly believe that God speaks to me in analogies. So, trust me when I say that this is honestly what happened in my head.
I started thinking about how, during some seasons in our lives, we have to wait for the red light in our day and sneak in a little God time.
And even that takes planning ahead, doesn’t it?
I don’t just stumble upon dedicated God time. I don’t just accidentally begin to read the Bible. I usually have to seek out time to speak intentionally with God and listen to His voice.
Surely that’s not just me. You, too?
I’ll be the first to admit that I miss out on God time too often. Like, way too often. In this season of life, morning Bible time just doesn’t happen. By bedtime, I’m zonked and my eyes droop as soon as I sit down. Sometime in the middle of the day is what I can do right now.
Over the last few months, I’ve been rocking out some Bible-reading time during my lunch time at work. It’s been sweet and delightful, even when I’m not super focused. This is one part of my day when there’s a red light–a stop to my day. I don’t work while I eat (usually) and I spend most lunch periods by myself. Red light.
And at least four out of five days a week, I have a couple of hours after work before the kids and husband come home. Sometimes I nap. Honestly, most times I decompress from the day. And sometimes I read the Bible, write, or pray. Red light.
Red Lights Instead of Excuses
We can come up with all sorts of reasons to avoid God time. We can claim we’re too busy or that we don’t have any space in our hectic lives to give to God.
Maybe you’ve been told that the only way you can spend time with God is by getting up early and spending exorbitant amounts of time studying the Bible and dropping to your knees in prayer. Or that you have to do it some specific way.
Listen, there’s no universal formula for connecting with the God of the universe. He can meet you at your lunch desk, your traffic light, your couch, grocery pick-up or even a drive-thru.
And during some seasons of life, that’s the only way we can make it happen.
That’s a beautiful thing about our Lord. He’s present everywhere and great in whatever dosage we have time for.
James 4.8 says, “Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.” It doesn’t say how often or how long. Just do it.
Anticipate that red light moment, friend, and take full advantage of it by reaching out to Jesus: switch to your app that reads the Bible to you, turn on praise and worship music, close your eyes and pray. Plan it now. Decide what your next red light moment will be so you’re ready when it hits.
And if you need help deciding, pray this with me, right now: Lord, prepare me for the next red light moment You’ll give me. Help me to be ready to receive from You and make it obvious to me that it’s time for us to connect. I miss connecting with You and want You more than any of this. Amen.
by Rebecca | Nov 8, 2021 | Christian Life
I’ve been thinking about the tree outside of my classroom lately. In October 2017 I started working in this particular classroom. It was the perfect time to see the tree in it’s fall glory. The leaves are thick and the tree is strong. It’s a great shade tree, keeping the morning sun from heating up our classroom too much. And we’re on the second floor, so we look right out at its crown. It holds nests and squirrels traverse its bark.
Every year, I just sort of took it for granted. It’s just a tree, after all, and I prefer to enjoy watching the occasional deer who would frolic across the ground, mother deer with their fawns. Beautiful. Pastoral. Delightful as I spend so much of my time away from the country.
But last spring, as we returned to the buildings at what we thought was the end of the pandemic, I noticed something I hadn’t noticed before. Blooms.
Distractions
I kinda assumed that maybe I hadn’t noticed because I had always had droves of students in my classroom, spring schedules chock full of mandated testing, and twiterpated teenagers. Maybe I had only noticed because the spring was, for once, a slow pace with fewer than half of my students required to attend each day due to the hybrid schedule.
But a colleague pointed out that it was the first time it had ever bloomed.
The first time.
Honestly, I was kind of relieved. I’m not known for stopping to smell the roses, but I usually don’t ignore them, either.
And I can’t stop thinking about it, even as I write this in the fall, dreaming of the spring so I can get back to my next summer break.
Tulip trees are late-bloomers. They literally take at least 15 years to start blooming. Sometimes 20.
Reminds me of the Christian life.
Tulip Trees and the Christian Life
There’s so much that goes into really cultivating a beautiful life for Christ, ya’ know?
Like, at the beginning of our walk with Christ, we’re not spiritually mature. We may think we are, but we’re still gaining strength–depth. There’s something beautiful and special about a new Christian. Like a newly planted tree, there’s so much potential and joy in seeing it.
But once we get through a couple decades of seeking Christ, of fighting with Christ against the world’s gusts, a new beauty emerges–a beauty that is extraordinary and unexpected. A beauty that we didn’t realize wasn’t there before. This beauty is a result of patience, love, service, determination, seeking God, and sacrifice. It’s a beauty borne of labor and selflessness.
Abloom
I suppose there are several ways someone could realize their metaphorical tree is abloom.
Maybe you are mentoring a believer, reading the Bible with them. Maybe you forgot that you didn’t always know something that this believer is learning. And you’re thankful for the struggle you went through so you could learn it.
Maybe you’re watching other, younger believers talk about the faith on social media and you kiiiiinda cringe because you remember when you weren’t as careful with your words or opinions. This was before you understood that believers aren’t called to stand up in self-righteousness. You have gratitude for growth and mercy.
Maybe you see your social media posts from years back and are embarrassed that you were so flagrantly unloving toward others instead of inviting them to come and see. You pray for more opportunities to speak with love, grace, mercy, and encouragement.
No, we’ll never “arrive” at a perfect life before God. That’s the whole point. But God provides the growth. First Corinthians 3.7 says that God provides the growth. And He certainly does this in a myriad of ways: through community, through failures, through successes, through prayer, through Bible-reading–through time. We are always being cultivated.
And, for that, I’m thankful.
by Rebecca | Nov 1, 2021 | Christian Life
I was searching for books for my baby girl. I needed to add some to her wishlist in preparation for her birthday. We love books. We have more books in our house than balls in the ball pit. More books than we really have room for. It’s getting out of hand. In a good way. But we will always want more because books are so valuable to us.
I hopped online, but in my Amazon search for “books for girls,” the results were pretty much one-note. They were all about how girls can do anything, how girls are just as good as boys.
But I was just looking for books about mermaids, unicorns, and other silly things. My boy reads about trucks, animals, and other silly things.
Raising a girl is a distinct and high honor. I don’t take it lightly.
And neither did my parents.
My Parents
But here’s the thing: Never in my life did my parents ever say to me, “You can do anything a boy can do.” I distinctly remember my dad saying to all three of us girls, “You can do anything you want to do.” That was the end of it. No comparison to boys. Just an assertion that we could do anything we ever wanted. And he fully believed what he was saying. And he made me believe it, too. Thankfully.
I think that’s why I never remember comparing myself to the abilities of boys. It was probably easy because I didn’t have brothers to compete with. But at any rate, my raisins taught me that I could do anything I wanted to do. I have my own strengths. My own passions. And I have always tried to follow them.
Gosh, I want the exact same for my daughter.
So, the search results for baby girl books startled me. And irritated me. I have no desire to encourage my girl by saying that she “can do anything a boy can do” or, worse, that she’s “better than the boys!”
The Word
I recall Galatians 3.28, which says, “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” In context, this verse is talking about how all of us are of equal value in Christ. Equal value! Neither is more valuable than the other.
And 1 Corinthians 12.4-6 says, “There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them… different kinds of service, but the same Lord… different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.” While we’ll encourage our little girl to do whatever she wants, we’ll do it with her strengths, passions, and desires in mind–not by encouraging her to go out there and beat all the boys at their jobs, but by encouraging her to do her very best.
So, there will be no, “You can be anything a man can be.”
There will all of this: “You want to go for that job? Do it!” “Want to take that major in college? Absolutely!” “You want to raise a load full of kids? Sounds fun! How can I help?” “You want to be your own boss and start your own business? That sounds awesome!” “I’m so proud of you, sweet girl!”
And what’s more important is that we will say these exact same things to our son. Well, except we’ll call him our “sweet boy.”
Because, to me, ambition, ability, success– none of it is flavored by gender.
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