would you step onto a magic carpet?

One of the most profound spiritual images I live by comes from Disney’s Aladdin. 

I know.  I’m 43.   

Aladdin looks at the princess, asking her to join him on the magic carpet.  She’s dubious, but he puts out his hand and says, Do you trust me?  

Is it safe?, she asks. 

He ignores the question and instead repeats his. 

Do you trust me? 

She looks him in the eye -not at the carpet hanging in mid air -in the eye.  Gauging who he is before saying yes and stepping on. 

Living in obedience to God is totally a magic carpet ride.  Not overly safe.  Rationally impossible.  And awesome. 

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and try not to think about how ridiculous climbing on a magic carpet is (Christy’s version).”  (Proverbs 3:5) 

Do you trust me?

your character and your to do list

We watched two shows back-to-back this weekend.  Both were set in Alaska. 

The first was about men looking for gold on the ocean floor.  Cussing – greedy – fighting men.  One man had divorced his wife to look for gold in Alaska.  She thought the idea was foolish, so he left her.   

The second was about men in the Alaskan Coast Guard.  Disciplined – heroic – team-oriented men.  One woman bragged openly about the pride she feels in what her husband does every day. 

I wonder – 

Does gold make men greedy or do greedy men seek gold?  Does a rescuing job make a man selfless or do selfless men seek a rescuing job? 

Same ocean. 

Such a difference in character and purpose. 

What do you wake up to do every day? 

“Everyone should look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.”  (Philippians 2:4)

the seventh day is for empty people

All week long we feel the emptiness of our souls and try to fill it.

With food.  With people.  With new things from a store.  With a TV.

And that's why we go to church.  To remember where fullness.  Real fullness.  Comes from.

O God,
Thou hast taught me
that Christ has all fullness and
so all plenitude of the Spirit,
that all fullness I lack in myself is in him,
for his people, not for himself alone,
he having perfect knowledge, grace,
righteousness,
to make me see,
to make me righteous,
to give me fullness;
that it is my duty, out of a sense of emptiness,
to go to Christ, possess, enjoy his fullness
as mine,
as if I had it in myself, because it is for me in him;
that when I do this I am full of the Spirit,
as a fish that has got from the shore to the sea
and has all fullness of waters to move in...

-a puritan prayer from Valley of Vision

May you get filled up today.

the desk where things happen

I am at my desk, and right now the papers I’ve printed are all crinkled up because so much stuff was stacked in front of the printer when they came out.  There’s a battery sitting here, and I don’t know if it’s old or new.  There’s a pile of necklaces I used in my Bible lesson with the kids at church, and on the left is a stack of papers turned every which way that are probably important.  No one in their right mind would leave anything here for me to do.

My mom’s desk is pristine (and has probably been dusted more recently).  Tidy holders for everything.  Neat stacks.  There are a few square feet where you can see the actual desk itself.  If mom says, “Go put it on my desk and I’ll take care of it” she actually does.   

What does God’s desk look like?  Seriously?   

When my kids put something on my desk, they know they had better follow up and maybe throw out a “So, mom, did you take care of my…”  Is that what God is like? 

I always pretend I have this huge stack of anxiety in my hands, piled so high that I can’t even look over it.  And I walk up to God’s desk and plop it down so loud that everything rattles.  And I say, “Can you take care of all of this?”  And he says, “Sure.  Just leave it.” 

And by looking at his desk I know I can.   

“Plop all your anxiety on his desk (Christy’s version) because he cares about you.”  1 Peter 5:7

follow the neon

We happily agreed to loan our ski pants to a friend -a quiet, reserved friend.  He didn’t know the pants were neon green.  I wish you could have seen his face when I pulled those out of the front closet.   

I later laughingly asked his wife what she thought of the pants, and she said, “Thank God for those pants!!”  They skied down the mountain into a dense fog, and the only thing she could make out in front of her was neon green.  Scared to death, she followed that spot of color all the way down the run. 

I feel like I’m serving God in a dense fog sometimes.  Trying to push forward energetically and valiantly –but where is forward? 

In this season of my life when I am walking into unknown territory, God’s words are to me like neon ski pants in a fog. 

Not just any words –not the whole Bible.  I am talking about specific verses that God has pulled out and handed to me and said, “Here, this is your job.  This is what I want you to do with your life.” 

So when activities of the day feel weird, which they do a lot –like writing a blog –and I wonder if I’m going in the direction God wants me to go, I fix my eyes on those neon verses and don’t let them out of my site. 

Do you have one?  Some instruction in the Bible that you know is your verse.   

The one to live your life by. 

The one to measure every activity of the day by. 

The one to throw every ounce of energy into obeying.   

"Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path."  (Psalm 119:105)