Wedgie Tales

My 16-year-old is the youngest of five kids. That means that he’s suffered a lot of wedgies through the years. But hey, I figure that’ll give him stories he can tell his kids. Some parents tell their children about walking to and from school in the 12-foot snow—uphill both ways. Daniel will be able to tell his children that he spent a few years suffering through underwear with no waistbands. My friend Janet said he could call his stories “Wedgie Tales.”

It’s a good reminder that tough situations, like waistbands, come and go. The question is, how will we respond? Will we allow difficulties to strengthen us? Will we rest in our Heavenly Father’s presence, seeing life from his eternal perspective? Or will we try to squirm through on our own, pouting all along the way? Stories of grace under pressure are so much more fun to pass on to our children. Those stories will even answer a lot of their questions about life and how we should live it.

In the Amplified version of 2 Corinthians 4:16-17 we read, “Therefore we do not become discouraged, utterly spiritless, exhausted, and wearied out through fear. Though the outer man is progressively decaying and wasting away, yet our inner self is being progressively renewed day after day. For our light, momentary affliction, this slight distress of the passing hour, is ever more and more abundantly preparing and producing and achieving for us an everlasting weight of glory, beyond all measure, excessively surpassing all comparisons and all calculations, a vast and transcendent glory and blessedness never to cease!”

Waistbands? Here today, wedgied away tomorrow. But we’re to be focused on the things that are eternal—the unseen blessedness that never ceases. Verse 18 says, “Since we consider and look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen; for the things that are visible are temporal, brief and fleeting, but the things that are invisible are deathless and everlasting,” 2 Corinthians 4:18, AMP.

I’m fighting the urge to mention the fact that it says that visible things are “brief.” The invisible? Everlasting! Not ever-elastic. But deathless and everlasting, for sure. And ultimately, in our own personal “everlasting,” every question in this life—every why—will be answered.

Of course, there’s still one question left hanging at present: Would you call a person with no waistbands left a “Wedge-etarian”?

Cocoa Puff Jewelry

Have I told you about the bracelet I once had? It was one of those pieces of jewelry that you get especially attached to. I hadn’t worn it for a few weeks, then one morning I went to put it on, and found that it was so not what it had been before. Gold tone? Not anymore. It had turned all brownish with these leprosy-looking bronzy splotches.

Yeah, I know. I probably don’t have to tell you it wasn’t one of your higher-end bracelets to begin with. But honestly, I could’ve strung Cocoa Puffs together and it would’ve looked better than this thing. Okay, so it probably would’ve stayed crunchy even in milk…but still. It’s just so sad when a good bracelet goes bad.

Life changes faster than the cheapest jewelry. But some things always remain the same:
*God is on the throne.
*If we know Christ, our eternity is sure.
*And there is grace for every disappointment. Bracelet disappointments—and the big disappointments, too. There’s a lot of comfort there.

I’d chat more, but I’m kind of hungry for Cocoa Puffs. Weird.

Only Passing Through

I’m one of those take-no-risks kind of drivers. I’m just warning you, it can be really annoying to get behind me on one of those two-lane roads. I hate to pass on those little roads, no matter how much good, clear road I have ahead of me.

The other day, I was behind a slow-moving vehicle. It was one of those pieces of farm machinery that had machete-looking things poking out the side. No way I was passing that thing. I had enough road ahead to land a small plane and I still wouldn’t go around. It didn’t get embarrassing until someone passed me and the machete-machine in the same go-round, and I realized the vehicle passing us was carrying a prefab home.

I decided to just let it remind me that this world is not my home—prefab or otherwise. No need to get too comfy here. We’re only passing through (though that may take longer on certain roads).

1 Peter 1:17 says, “And if you call upon Him as your Father Who judges each one impartially according to what he does, then you should conduct yourselves with true reverence throughout the time of your temporary residence on the earth, whether long or short,” (AMP). The long and the short of it is that this truly is a temporary residence. Living out holiness, conducting ourselves with “true reverence”—that’s the right road at every speed.

And hey, Sunday is the first day of the week—the day Jesus rose from the dead—the day we set aside for special worship. So I think I’ll just decide to be flattered when someone calls me a Sunday driver!

Look What’s Popping Up

Weird things keep popping up out of my toaster. A banana split? Didn’t see that coming. But did you know that Pop-tarts now come in flavors like “Chocolate Banana Split”? No kidding. Even “Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough.” My teens love them but my adult taste buds haven’t been any too impressed.

The real question is: Is there really any way to make a cookie-covered toaster-breakfast taste like a chocolate banana split? Personally, I’d rather have the chocolate banana split for breakfast instead. Why not go with the real thing?

Surprising things are always going to be popping up in our lives. The real question this time is: How will we respond? In grace with faith? Or in grousing, pouting and foot-stomping?

When the heat is on, I want to pop up by faith in his grace. In the faithiest, graciest, tastiest way. Our Heavenly Father gives us everything we need to respond well by his Holy Spirit. As a matter of fact, if we’ll allow him to, he’ll respond for us. And through us.

There’s no substitute. No self-help program or book. No amount of self-discipline. Only through the Real Thing—the Holy Spirit of God—can we respond well when our feet are put to the fire.

Try it any other way and we’re totally toast.