When People Think You've Lost Your Mind

“ if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly…”

2 Peter 2:5

Yes,I know.  No one is more surprised than I am that this didn’t start with scripture from Genesis, but I’m not in charge so we are going with it!

Sometimes God tells us things that make no sense to other people. Sometimes He promises us things that have zero possibilities or sensibilities in the natural. Sometimes He shows favor to someone and tells him (or her) to do things that the surrounding people cannot see as God. Because it cannot be fathomed with the natural eye, it’s often easy to assume the person has missed God and lost their mind completely.

Genesis 6 tells us that Noah lives in a very wicked time. God wasn’t happy with what He saw. Have you ever been mad enough at your kids that you took it out on everyone around them too?  Genesis 6:7 says that God was sorry He had made man on earth and he intended to blot out man, animals, creeping things, birds – all of it (or as the Wicked Witch would say, “I’ll get you and your little dog too!”) How mad was God that he wanted to remove all living creatures from earth??  How bad were the people? Gen 6:5 – “the intentions of the thoughts of his (man) heart was only evil continually.” Evil.  Continually.  That’s ALL THE TIME.

Enter Noah into the story:

“But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.” Genesis 6:8

Righteous. Blameless. Walked with God. Words used to describe Noah.  Noah found favor with God. How does that turn out? Imagine it for a minute and allow a little creative license:

Noah, I want you to build a boat. A really BIG boat.

Why?

Because it’s going to flood and destroy all living creatures.

What’s “flood”???

Never mind, take these instructions and follow them exactly.

      Can you hear Noah’s family? 

      God wants you to do …what???? Have you lost your mind? What are we going to do with a big boat in the backyard?

      God told me to build it.

      That can’t be God. God doesn’t say stuff like that. That makes no sense. What’s “flood”?

      Agreed, but He said it, so I am going to do it! And I don’t know what “flood” is, so stop asking me!

          Can you hear the neighbors?

            Look at the crazy man! What is he doing?

              Says he “hears from God” – keep the kids away from him.

                 Says it’s going to flood, he says. Hey, what’s “flood”??

People can’t always see that you have favor and they can’t see or hear what you hear God tell you.

If God has given you a dream and a promise – hold on to it.

God told Noah He was going to establish a covenant with him. He told him months before it came to pass. Before the covenant, there was the flood, destruction, captivity, the long days and nights of nothing but…flood, destruction, and captivity.

At what point during this journey do you think Noah realized he had great favor with God? When he got the instructions for the big boat? Before the storm? When he knew people were dying right outside his boat and he could look around and see all his loved ones safe with him? When the dove came back with the olive leaf?

God promised him a covenant BEFORE the storm. It made no sense what God described to Noah as there had been no flooding before – we made through five busy chapters in Genesis with nary a mention of rain. There had been no mention of a covenant before then either!  God promised him the covenant before the destruction.

If God has given you a dream and a promise – hold on to it.

Just because someone else can’t hear what God has whispered in your ear  doesn’t mean that what He’s told you isn’t true…

Just because you’re going through the flood doesn’t mean God doesn’t love you…

Just because it’s storming all around and all you can see for as far as you can see is storm doesn’t mean He isn’t there…

Just because you have a dream that seems unattainable doesn’t mean you don’t get to reach it…

If God has given you a dream and a promise – hold on to it.

He loves you.

I Can See Clearly Now (or - I Got A New Windshield)

A few days ago I got a new windshield.  The next morning I was discussing things with God and giving Him thanks for my blessings.  When I told Him I was thankful for the new windshield, the conversation got really interesting.  I don’t know how He talks to you, but it’s always plain and simple, often with visuals for me.

He said, “You know that windshield is like the wounded spirited people you work with?”

Me, “How?”

He said to think about how the whole thing happened and see how it parallels to “real life”:

The crack started one day in a parking lot.  I wasn’t with the car when the windshield got the crack, but it was there when I got back to it.  It really was a little crack, maybe about 2 inches tops.  It was late in the day, and on the passenger side of the car, so it didn’t really seem urgent to fix it.  Within two days, the crack had grown to half a foot.  Still, it was on the other side of the car and I really didn’t have the time nor the money to get it fixed.

The six inch crack stayed there – six inches – all through the winter months.  It didn’t get any bigger and did not demand my attention. So, I ignored it. I would deal with it later.

One day in the spring, my youngest daughter and I went to the store. It was one of the early beautiful days of spring.  The temperature no longer required a jacket and the sun was shining bright.  We shopped for maybe an hour and got back to the car to discover the six inch crack had spread almost all the way across the windshield! A little heat evidently caused it to spread.  Money was still an issue, so I didn’t plan to replace it soon. The crack, however, was right in my line of vision.

I am going to backtrack a bit here and explain what I see:  the windshield took some type of blow that left it damaged.  Probably not the car’s fault since it was sitting still when it happened.  We all take various hits and blows in life.  Some leave visible wounds.  Some leave emotional or spiritual wounds.  I chose to ignore the crack in the windshield like some of us choose to ignore the wounds we have.  We think if we stuff them down, they will just go away. When the heat came on, that little crack became a very large issue, just like a little hurt can fester and some seemingly little thing can make us feel like we are falling apart, and we choose to bury our heads in the sand, we can’t change because we can’t get past this huge wound.

Now, there were times I could look around that huge crack and kind of pretend it wasn’t there, but sometimes the sun (Son) would hit that crack just right and it would nearly blind me! Like when Jesus brings something to light that He wants to heal, but we close our eyes and ignore it as best we can.  Driving at night, a lot of times it was difficult to see around that crack, like it can be difficult to see down the road past the huge hurt we keep hanging on to.  When the darkness comes, the hurt can become all we can see.  That in itself can cause more pain, until pain is all we can see.

So, what do you do??

You have to make a change.

You have to let go of the cracked windshield- you call the windshield Specialist and He brings you a brand new windshield, with no cracks.

The Specialist can replace what was damaged by the world and give you brand new clear vision.  All you have to do is make the call-  He will come to you.

The Sacred Meal The Ancient Practices Series (Review)

The Sacred MealThe Ancient Practices Series

By Nora Gallagher, Phyllis Tickle
Published by Thomas Nelson

My expectation from the title of the book and the series was a deeper study into communion, cultural meaning and experiences, variations of the practice from faith to faith.  For this, The Sacred Meal did not meet what I was hoping it would be.  It did prove to be something quite different. 

This book is a lovely memoir of Ms. Gallagher's experiences with communion, not what I expected, but lovely nonetheless.  She reveals up close personal experiences with others during communion and how her life was affected from those encounters.  Quiet, awe-filled encounters with the King of kings and feeling His presence surrounding her- those moments are precious, both in her experience and her openness to share those experiences with the world.  

Did I learn from the book?  Yes.  Not what I expected.  I would not recommend the book for a deeper study of the meaning of communion. I do recommend reading it for an encouragement for your faith. 

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com <http://BookSneeze®.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”