>Beach Bliss

>I have not blogged in a few days because we have been at the beach.
I love the beach.
I sit out there and watch the waves and listen to them break up on the shore and feel the beach breeze on my face and I just melt into it with a deep breath in and slow exhale out. The beauty of His creation and the splendor of His majesty. I sat out with my girls on the swing one morning and we read from the book of Job…

 “Or who enclosed the sea with doors
When, bursting forth, it went out from the womb;
When I made a cloud its garment
And thick darkness its swaddling band,
And I placed boundaries on it
And set a bolt and doors,
And I said, ‘Thus far you shall come, but no farther;
And here shall your proud waves stop’?
Job 38:8-11 

Sitting out there this week I selfishly told God that I would be completely okay if He chose to call our family to ministry at the beach. However, deep down I know that the beach would not have the same effect if it was the norm of my life instead of the time of momentary escape.

Not that I don’t love my life, but sometimes it’s just nice to downsize and simplify and lay all the “stuff” of life aside and just focus on worshipping my God and enjoying the family that He has given me. It’s so easy to let the things of ministry and family become a burden of responsibility instead of an outworking of inward love and devotion.

It’s so very easy to allow the distractions of life make me feel as if they are sucking the opportunity of worshipping my God right out of me. I can feel the “Ugh!” rising up in my throat now as my mind already jumps to the list of commitments that come with tomorrow… and even some that I really probably should go ahead and take care of tonight… but I must get all this out of my mind and heart into a page or the stirring will not stop and I will never get to sleep. (This blog has become my journal instead of my journal becoming the blog… not sure yet if that’s a God thing, a good thing, or a good-grief thing.)

There really is nothing I had rather do than write and teach about my God. The “Ugh!” rises up for all things that interrupt that. I know it should not be that way, because I am to do all things as unto the Lord… all things includes cooking supper for my family (no matter the battle scars I add to my body from it), it includes washing the dishes, the laundry, the floors, the bathrooms, it includes being a taxi, a doctor, a counselor, a friend, a vet, and the bestes dog hair sweeper upper in the county.

Sometimes we just have to step back and remember the why and trust in the Who and know that our God is with us and that He understands our life distractions and we all just simply were not called into a full-time paid ministry position.

Although in all honesty I have at times asked God why He didn’t make me a man so that I could have held that position (and it’s not the “position” but just the “permission” to go into a room and shut the door and say I am studying, I’ll come out when I am done, I get up at 5:30-6am and hope to get a couple of undistracted hours in before the house wakes up)…. or even let us switch denominations so that I could justify me holding such a position, then I could afford a maid to do all this other stuff that I see as distractions… then I would be jealous of the maid, because my family would see her as the one who is meeting their needs and not me… oh well.

Yes the craziness of my thought flow…

I love what I read this week in The Pursuit of God by AW Tozer:

Distractions may hinder, but once the heart is committed to Him, after each excursion away from Him, the attention will return again and rest upon Him like a wandering bird coming back to its window.
I would emphasize this one committal, this one great volitional act which establishes the heart’s intention to gaze forever upon Jesus. God takes this intention for our choice and makes what allowances He must for the thousand distractions which beset us in this evil world. He knows that we have set the direction of our hearts toward Jesus…

And Jesus knowing their thoughts… Matthew 9:4
But Jesus, knowing what they were thinking in their heart,… Luke 9:47
I would have to say that one of the most freeing realizations ever is the fact that now that I am in Christ and I desire to honor Him and live a life worthy of His calling I find peace instead of fear when I think of Him knowing my thoughts and my heart. There was a day when I sought to hide what was in my heart, when I wanted it covered up and hidden from God. I wanted God to look at all the good things I had done and judge me by them… but now I cry out to Him to judge me by my heart because I know my works will never cut it.
There are too many distractions for whole works devotions… but never to many distractions for whole hearted devotion…
So even though I very much enjoyed my momentary escape of beach bliss. The chair sits empty once again at the shore while I get back to the things of my life. There are bills to pay, lessons to plan, weddings to attend, birthday presents to purchase, laundry to wash, rooms to clean, budgets to balance, classes to teach, meals to cook, kids to cuddle, husband to love, dog to yell at, and above all a mighty and awesome and understanding God to worship and serve with all my heart who sees me for me and loves me unconditionally.

>Tattle Telling

>

Then she called the name of the Lord
who spoke to her,
“You are a God who sees.”
Genesis 16:13
When we read Genesis 16 we see that Hagar, now pregnant with Abram’s child, appears to have decided that she no longer has to take orders from Sarai. Sarai goes to Abram and blames him for the actions of Hagar. I can see Abram throwing his hands up in the air and telling Sarai to do whatever she feels she needs to do.
Sarai attempts to discipline Hagar, and Hagar rebels from Sarai’s authority and flees from Sarai’s presence. Hagar ends up by a spring in the wilderness, and then the angel of the Lord appears to her.
I love how God approaches her. He addresses her as “Hagar, Sarai’s maid,” (Genesis 16:8) reminding her that she was under the authority of Sarai.
Then He asks, “Where have you come from, and where are you going?” (Genesis 16:8).
God knew where she had come from and where she was going, but He gave her the opportunity to talk to Him about it. God is the one who opened the door of communication. This has been His way from the beginning. In the garden, it was God who came to Adam and Eve and initiated the reconciliation.
Jesus tells us in Matthew 11:28, “Come to me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.” We go to see psychiatrists and counselors because we need someone to tell our hurts, to share our disappoints, someone to listen as we pour out our heart. Let us not forget that God is our “Wonderful Counselor” (Isaiah 9:6).
I went through a Beth Moore study, A Heart Like His (a wonderful study, by the way), and she spoke of us being able to go to God to “tell on” others. Do you remember when you were a child and you felt you had been treated unfairly by a sibling, a cousin, a friend? Where did you go, and what did you do? You most likely did as I did and went and found your momma and daddy and “told on” somebody.
It is okay for us to tattle to God. He doesn’t mind. As you can see with His approach to Hagar, He welcomes it; He seeks it. We come to Him like children. Yet after the telling, we, like mature adults, are to obey our Father.
Sometimes we realize we had a huge part in the situation, and we have to do our part to make it right, just as Hagar did. Hagar answered the angel of the Lord, and then he told her to go back and submit to Sarai’s authority. He then gave her prophecy concerning the child in her womb.
Hagar also introduces us to another name for our Creator, El Roi, which means God sees. Our God is a God who sees all. We cannot run from Him. We cannot hide. We can, however, trust that He sees all. He sees when we have been treated unjustly. He sees when we treat others unjust. He sees when we have been disobedient, and He sees when we have been hurt; nothing is hidden from His eyes.
Oh Father,
Even if no one else sees, You see. You see when we have been hurt or wronged. Nothing happens on the earth that Your eyes do not behold. How comforting that is to me! My God, I love You, and I am so thankful for Your omnipresence in my life. You are always with me.
You also know when I have overreacted and when I must apologize. Your Holy Spirit moves within me and leads me where I need to go and instructs me in what I need to do. You give me the strength to be strong, and you give me the strength to be humble.
Help me, Father, to be a woman of high esteem and integrity, a woman who does right even though no one sees, and a woman who is quick to right her wrongs.
My Jesus, it is in Your name I pray,
Amen.