Text-mania

A friend of mine recently experienced a major texting disaster. Her thumbs were flying when with one bad thumb-move she accidentally lost control and dropped her phone. That wouldn’t have been so bad, except that the phone fell into a large container of water. I’m trying to keep it family-friendly here, but let’s just say that the next slogan for character-building week could be “Just Say No to Toilet Texting.”

I think I’ve figured out why texting is so hot—and why it seems to happen nonstop these days with some folks. I think the text-mania is because so many of us have decided we would rather talk (or type) than listen. Dishing it out, but not taking it, as it were. Tech-savvy lets us get across our own message, then skim the response. We can ignore the response altogether if we want. It’s kind of the way of our culture sometimes, isn’t it?

But it’s not the Bible way. In the book of James, for instance, we see a call for us to emphasize the listening, not the speaking. And if we’re not listening, we’re missing that call. Voicemail won’t help there.

Our call is to get our eyes off our own needs and flush out new ways to listen—and hey, texting can fit in there. Oh, and sorry about the “flush” reference.

Power In-age!

We had a power outage for a couple of days a few weeks ago. I had a speaking engagement and had to fly out early. The challenging part was that I had to pack IN THE DARK. I was just hoping I'd get to the speaking venue with two shoes that matched.

The biggest crisis, though, was that I had to do my readying with no BLOW DRYER OR CURLING IRON. Oh, the humanity. It's one thing to go to a speaking engagement with shoes that don't match. But with bad hair? I have to tell you, I was sorely (and follicly) missing the power.

It's a good reminder though, that a power outage doesn't have to be our biggest worry. Why? Because we have a power INAGE. When we have Jesus on the inside, we have all the power we need to live a life of real significance. Colossians 2:9-10 says, "For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority." He is the head of every power, and we've been fully given his fullness. Could we be any more power-full?

I'm so thankful to the God of all power who has, by his grace, allowed the fullness of his power to live in us through his Son, Jesus. Living in his power is living in delight. And it's living in "de light." With or without electricity.

Spa Survivor

I finally found a Survivor I want to sign up for. It’s…SPA SURVIVOR. Instead of competitions where you end up dragging yourself all across a sandy desert beach, you have to endure a really rough exfoliator. Yeah, that’ll rub you the wrong way.

Competitions could include running with cotton balls between each toe, finding the way to the ladies’ room with a cucumber slice over each eye and trying to get a credit card out of a tight wallet before the nails are completely dry. Tough, I know, but I think I could take it. Why, I’ve even been known to endure a brow-waxing…and that’s brutal, man. I would likely be willing to endure a seaweed wrap with hardly a whine for the right spa survivor incentive. A really tight seaweed wrap even.

Okay, in truth, my spa survivor skills are not all that likely to impress. But have you ever thought about God’s Word as our spiritual day spa? It truly is the most impressive. No brutal brow-waxing or exfoliators. Even when it causes us to see things in our lives that are a bit painful, God’s word always rubs us the RIGHT way.

Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” That may sound more painful than a brow-waxing, but searching the scriptures, studying them, applying them, meditating on them and making them part of our lives doesn’t simply change the shape of a brow. No, it changes the shape of our lives. As we focus on his word, we can see our thoughts and attitudes lining up with his thoughts and attitudes. That’s when we can find a whole new depth of real, purpose-filled life.

The Bible encourages us not to merely survive this life. Who wants to settle for mere surviving when we can be thriving? It’s tribal or non-tribal survival “thrival.”

So let’s peel those cucumbers off our eyes and look daily into the living, active word of God. It’s grand to thrive! Even if we leave our brows outrageously furry and decide to EAT the seaweed.

The Perfect Centerpiece

I love, love, love whoever it was who invented the marvelous, miraculous FROZEN DINNER. What a genius! I OWE this person. Everyone talks about those fancy ice sculptures. But me? A frozen family-sized lasagna is a thing of beauty to me. Now there’s a centerpiece you can sink your teeth into.

Anytime I can’t decide what to make for dinner, I go straight for the freezer. I open that magic door and find—oh glorious day—someone has already decided! Those days there aren’t enough groceries in the pantry to put together anything besides some kind of noodle/Dorito casserole, I check that freezer—and dinner is done! Some days I just plain don’t want to spend an hour in the kitchen. No problem. In the freezer dinner is already done! If they made it any easier they would be digesting it for me!

I’m embarrassed to admit how much I depend on my freezer for dinner (though I do try to make sure I do all my own digesting, thank you). And my microwave. My beautiful, beautiful microwave. We’ve never needed a dinner bell. The beep of the microwave signals everyone that dinner is ready. And that beep has become like music to my ears.

Even sweeter music to my ears? The sweet, sweet song of salvation! Our redemption is all about and all through Jesus. When he paid our sin debt on the cross, it was finished—in Jesus it’s already done!

Just take a look at how the Amplified Bible expresses Hebrews 7:23-25: “Now there have been many of those priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office; But He holds His priesthood unchangeably, because He lives on forever. Therefore He is able also to save to the uttermost (completely, perfectly, finally, and for all time and eternity) those who come to God through Him, since He is always living to make petition to God and intercede with Him and intervene for them.”

Jesus saves to the uttermost. Completely and perfectly. Finally and eternally. Sound the beautiful beep, it’s done! He had already decided before the foundation of the world to redeem his children back to himself. And what he decides to do, he does. We don’t have to stew over our redemption. We only have to accept it and live it out.

But speaking of stew, I just heard the microwave sound the dinner bell. Ah, it’s playing my song. Oh and just so you won’t think I’m totally inept in the kitchen, that special Italian sauce I make is never ever frozen. My special sauce is from a jar.