Made for Eternity

Day 21

The  virus known as the common cold has been uncommonly friendly with me the last few months. I’ve been getting sick with something every other week it seems. Last school year, my body waited ’til April to become ill, but this year, the darling little children and their not-so darling little germies have gotten to my immune system early and often. Add in a heart issue that turned out pretty benign in the end, and I just feel like I’m sickly all the time these days.

Still, the best part about being sick is anticipating the day when you feel all better – the day you wake up without a stuffy nose, without hacking up a lung, or without dreading every swallow. Being well is a glorious feeling that I take for granted most of the time.

And I am well, usually.

In this I am tremendously blessed. Good health on this earth is not a guarantee. Great physical suffering is common. In fact, knowing what we know about the body and how many things can go wrong and how many awful diseases there are out there, it is a wonder that most of us are well more than we are sick.

So even now, as I reach for a tissue after a gigantic sneeze, I can thank the Lord for the good health he has given me, and for the fact that that sneeze itself means my immune system is fightin’ off the bad guys.

Day 20

People sit around and talk a lot about what they’re thankful for these days. Or this day especially. But too many leave out the most important factor in the equation –  the recipient – and I kind of wonder who they’re giving thanks to? The Universe? Fate? Their lucky stars? The turkey?

Psalm 136:1-3 Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good. His love endures forever. Give thanks to the God of gods. His love endures forever. Give thanks to the Lord of lords:  His love endures forever.

So, thank you, LORD. Thank you that you are good. Thank you for being the One True God. Thank you for being Lord over all rulers. Thank you that your love endures for all eternity.

Day 19

Day 18

Me: “Before the Pilgrims came to America, they escaped England and went to a country called . . .  (pause) . . . a country called Hol . . . (pause after cue)  . . .”

Kid: “Holstralia?”

Me: “What were some of the kinds of meat the Pilgrims and Indians ate at the 1st Thanksgiving?”

Kid: “Turkey and, um  . . .  Polish sausage!” (Well, this is Wisconsin. At least he was in the meat category.)

Day 17

Reading the book of Numbers is overall a very unpleasant experience. You know what’s going  to happen, and you know it’s not good.  Yet you can’t stop it:  the Israelites keep murmuring, keep rebelling, keep rejecting God’s graciousness, until his judgment against their unbelief strikes, and the first generation out of Egypt is denied entrance to the Promised Land.

I felt like I was cringing all the way to the end of chapter 14, where they do this (then I just felt like yelling, “you IDIOTS!”):

“And they rose early in the morning and went up to the heights of the hill country, saying, “Here we are. We will go up to the place that the Lord has promised, for we have sinned.” But Moses said, “Why now are you transgressing the command of the Lord, when that will not succeed? Do not go up, for the Lord is not among you, lest you be struck down before your enemies.  For there the Amalekites and the Canaanites are facing you, and you shall fall by the sword. Because you have turned back from following the Lord, the Lord will not be with you.” But they presumed to go up to the heights of the hill country, although neither the ark of the covenant of the Lord nor Moses departed out of the camp. Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country came down and defeated them and pursued them, even to Hormah.”

Lesson: Refusing to do what God commands when he commands it and how he commands it, then trying to do it without his blessing in my own time and own way will only result in disaster.

The scariest part of Numbers? Seeing too much of me in the discontented people of Israel.

Day 16

Well, the baby of the family turns 16 today (guess he’s not so much a baby anymore, huh?). Well, technically tomorrow from where I’m sittin’, but I just woke him up over in Kenya with a birthday call. Poor kid.

Here he is, looking all tough and manly as “Caleb” in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, which was presented last week at Rift Valley Academy.

I remember him being so tiny – one of my favorite family videos is of Noah holding “Baby Daniel”. Now he just made the varsity basketball team. OK, seriously, time, where’d ya go?

Daniel, I hope your day is great (despite that U.S. History test ;), and that your next year is one of becoming more like Jesus. I love you!

2 Chronicles 16:9 “For the eyes of the LORD move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His.”

Day 15

consisted of:

sleeping in, phone call from Em, Leviticus, Romans, the prodigal son, package from Em, touch football in the warm afternoon, end times discussion over Gatorade, haircut, pizza, raspberry massacre pie.

(“massacre” because I accidentally smashed the majority of the berries while making the pie filling).

‘Twas a good Saturday, indeed.

Day 14

Today, someone entered “god is unimaginably cruel” in Google or Yahoo or one of the other search engines, and ended up here at Made For Eternity. I have no clue what the thought processes behind that particular search were, but the entry they clicked on was from 2007. It went like this:

I’ve heard people say that there is no God, but if there is, he must be unimaginably cruel – an assumption based on all the heartache aned evil in the world. As I read through Isaiah, though, I see the exact opposite; I see a God who is righteous in his judgment of man’s sin, who is just in destroying the wicked, but who is gracious beyond measure. For after the judging, comes this:

Isaiah 25:8-9 “He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken. It will be said on that day, “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the Lord; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”

He is not unimaginably cruel. He is unimaginably kind.

Day 13

Romans 3:26 “to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”

If God was unjust, He could never truly justify us. If he winked at our sins, or swept them under the rug, or said “that’s not so bad”, or accepted anything less than His Son’s payment of our sin debt on the Cross (note: “anything less” includes any work that we try to do), He would be unjust.

The only way He could declare us righteous was if someone took our penalty.  The only way we could be justified was if justice was served first.

How amazing that this God is just because he did “not spare his own Son” (Romans 8:32)! How amazing that he did so in order to be our justifier!

Day 12

Pastor shared this tonight. It’s quite convicting:

Oh, the bitter pain and sorrow
That a time could ever be,
When I proudly said to Jesus,
“All of self, and none of Thee.”

Yet He found me; I beheld Him
Bleeding on the accursed tree,
And my wistful heart said faintly,
“Some of self, and some of Thee.”

Day by day His tender mercy,
Healing, helping, full and free,
Brought me lower while I whispered,
“Less of self, and more of Thee.”

Higher than the highest heaven,
Deeper than the deepest sea,
Lord, Thy love at last has conquered:
“None of self, and all of Thee.”

– T. Monod

Day 11

2 quotes from today’s Telegraph:

“A decree banning women from wearing trousers in Paris is still technically in force, it emerged on Monday, making the laissez-faire French capital theoretically stricter than hardline Sudan in the fashion stakes.”

“As Evelyne Pisier, a law professor . . . points out, given that trousers are compulsory for Parisian policewoman, they are all breaking the law.”

I  also broke the two-hundred year old law in 1999 when I paraded around Paris  . .  . in jeans. Horrors!

Day 10

This is a paraphrase, and I think it exposes well the ridiculousness of militant atheism:

“What an atheist says: ‘Number 1, there’s no God. Number 2, I hate Him.'”

Psalm 14:1, anyone?

Day 9

Exodus 12:12 “For I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD.”

I am in awe of this LORD, this One who executes righteous judgment against his enemies, simply by saying it is so. I am thankful he is my God, and I am thankful that I will never face his anger. As much as he is a wrathful God, he is also a loving God who provided the only way to escape eternal condemnation.

For believers in his Son, those fearful words, “I am the LORD” bring a sense of comfort and contentment. He is on our side.

Day 8

“Ye feeble saints, fresh courage take;/Those clouds ye so much dread,/Are big with mercy, and shall break/In blessings on your head.” – W. Cowper

I’m grateful for the blessings of God when things are going well. The very fact that life is so “good” is in itself a blessing. Still, the blessings I treasure most are the ones that fall from those dreaded clouds; the ones God gives even during those times when life goes “wrong”, sometimes horribly wrong.

Those glimpses of grace in the midst of darkness let me know that my Father is there. He has not left me. His mercy will always reach beyond my trial and soothe my needy heart.

Day 7

“With God’s peace in my heart, and his Word in my hand,
I travel in haste through an enemy’s land;
The road may be rough, but it cannot be long,
So I’ll journey with hope and a conquering song.”

– adapted from H.T. Lyte,  “My Rest is in Heaven”

Day 6

Hearing Screenings in Grad School Clinic:

One audiometer. One clinician. One kid. Nearly sound-proof room.

Hearing Screenings in the Real World:

One audiometer. One SLP. Four K5 kids. Not anywhere near a sound-proof room. Gym class across the hall. Parent talking on cell phone in hall. Toilet flushing next door. 3 kids not being currently screened whispering and scootching around in chairs. Cars flying past outside. Swine-fluey kid in corner of office (which is shared with the nurse) hacking up a lung and retching into trash can.

I love my job. And I’m not being even a little facetious.

Onward.

Faith: absolute conviction of what we do not see (Hebrews 11:1).

Without my absolute conviction that I am going to spend eternity with my Savior, I honestly don’t know how I’d get up in the morning. He is my hope for the future and my strength for today.

Day 5

“the state or condition of being deceived; misapprehension.” (definition courtesy of dictionary.com)

I realized recently that in order to be “disillusioned”, one must first be “illusioned”. I find myself frequently disillusioned, and in many ways, this troubles me.

When I am disillusioned with our broken government, it is because I have been deceived into thinking it can fix our problems. When I am disillusioned with a friend who has let me down, it is because I have deceived myself into thinking humans are capable of always holding up their end of the bargain. When I am disillusioned by a spiritual leader’s failure, it’s because I’ve forgotten that they are sinners too. When I am disillusioned with myself, it is because I have misapprehended how evil my heart is. Hint: “it’s desperately wicked”  (Jeremiah 17:9).

I want to walk in the light of God’s Word, in his truth, seeing things as they are, seeing me as I am, and most importantly, seeing God as he is. I want to stop being illusioned.

Day 4

A lot of people don’t like treadmills, maybe because they make them feel like “lab rats”. I like the machines, and I’ve only felt like a lab rat once. (That was a few weeks ago during a stress test in which I was walking on the treadmill while hooked up to several machines and surrounded by 6 medical professionals of varying rank and job description who kept asking me questions – “how are you feeling?” “any pain?” – and continuously made incomprehensible remarks about my ever-changing vital signs which were being displayed on multiple monitors. See? Very lab-ratish.)

The reason I like treading on a fast moving strip of rubber-like material is that all the pertinent info is right there in front of me. Speed, mileage, time. It’s right there in all it’s digital brilliance, staring back at my sweaty face. For someone who never ventured beyond pre-calc and took one math course in 7+ years of post-high school studies, I sure do love the numbers. I love time and distance. I love racing myself even on days I say I’ll take it easy.

So, onward, in more ways than one.

Leviticus is a bloody, bloody book. Reading the precise instructions about burnt offerings makes me so very thankful that I am not under law but under grace (Romans 6:14). Thank you, Jesus, that your blood was sufficient to cleanse me completely, not just cover my sin temporarily.

Day 3 (of my 30th year on earth)

. . . with pizza. It’s the bump just behind your top front teeth.  That’s why I call it the “pizza burn bump” when I’m trying to get my kids to say t,d, l, etc. I’d credit the person I first heard that phrase from if I could remember, but I can’t.

I enjoy putting things into “kid-friendly” language. I especially enjoy stealing phrases from colleagues who are good at it.

Onward.

Memory verse for GIBS:

Exodus 15:11 “Who is like you, O LORD, among the gods? Who is like you, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?”

Answer: None one of them.

 

 

14 years ago, I was a sophomore in high school. In my English class, we were assigned to write an essay on what age we would like to live to, and why. After some consideration, I put down “30”. My reasoning was pretty simple. By 30, I hoped to be finished with school, have a job, maybe have a family. I would have experienced “the big things” in life. Today, I turned 29, entering my thirtieth year of life.

30 is a lot closer now, but my heart feels pretty much the same. I have lived a good life, in so many many ways. I have lived on both sides of the world. I grew up an Easterner (and finally got to see my Phillies win the World Series last year), but now am becoming a Midwest girl. I have laughed so hard I couldn’t breathe, and cried so hard I wanted to stop breathing altogether, just so the pain would go away. I have seen someone die before my eyes; I watched a man be born again in a downtown Chicago soup kitchen. I was a student, now I have sweet and rascally students of my own. I have friends who have blurred the lines and are now more in the family category. My days are sometimes mundane, sometimes hectic, sometimes unpredictable. My 29 years have not been all that unusual. I’m an average girl. I have done nothing extraordinary, never had 15 minutes of fame.

And I am content with my life.

If God should take me home soon, I am content. If God sees fit that I should live to 102, I am content.I can rest in His wisdom. I can cherish my life, knowing who I am, why I am here, and where I am going when I die. I am a child of the One True God. I am here to shine a light on Him. Because Jesus Christ died for me and rose again, and I trusted in Him, I’m going to live eternally in Heaven.

Thank you, Lord, for 29 years. Thank you for whatever I have left. May I glorify you.