Cinderella Slams the Mop

The Cinderella story captivates us in so many ways, but one aspect tends to be overlooked.

The house she cleaned day in and day out was rightfully hers, an inheritance from her father. What the wicked stepmother claimed by a marriage certificate Cinderella could claim through blood, but the strong took advantage of the weak.

It doesn’t have to be that way.

Jesus said, “How can anyone enter a strong man’s house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man?” (Matthew 12:29)

I’ve always thought of this as Bad Guy over Good Guy. The Bad Guy breaks into the house, ties up the Good Guy and robs him. The Enemy comes against us with shame, fear, and lies. As Cinderella did with her stepmother, we believe the lies and he ties us up, making us slaves in our own house, stealing our joy, peace, love, and truth.

But the reverse is also true. The Good Guy can tie up the Bad Guy.  We can tie up and rob the Enemy, take back our joy, peace, and truth. Take back our lives.  

The Enemy has no power over us except what we allow.

Jesus never intended for us be slaves. He came to bring us good news and God’s favor, to heal our wounds, and to set us free from the Enemy (Isaiah 61).  

It’s time we tie him up and take back what he has stolen (James 4:7).  

It’s time to seek out healing and freedom and abundance (Matthew 11:28,29).

It’s time to live as we were intended to – in Spirit and in truth (John 4:24); in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23) ; in power, love, and a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7).

This is your house, Cinderella. Take it back. 

It's ALL About Love

Fill in the blank of this famous song:

They will know we are Christians by our ____________.

A) WWJD Bracelets    B) Picket Signs    C) Politics    D) Love

I REALLY hope you know the correct answer is D) Love.  Unfortunately, many Christians show everything BUT love.

Why is this?  What happened to love, to OUR love?  How was it replaced with malice, envy, selfishness, pride, and self-righteousness?  Aren’t we, above all things, supposed to show God’s love to the world?  So why don’t we?   

Here’s what I’ve discovered:

Jesus replied, “‘LOVE the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘LOVE your neighbor as yourself.” (Matt 22:37-39)*   LOVE God.  Not obey, not serve, not worship, although those are important, but first and foremost we must LOVE God.

“A new command I give you: LOVE one another.  As I have loved you, so YOU MUST LOVE one another.  By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you LOVE ONE ANOTHER.” (John 13:34-35)  Jesus loves us and He loves them, therefore we must love.  Not scold, not judge, not disrespect, not shun, not diminish, not vilify.  Not even serve or tolerate or encourage, although those are important.  Love others.  Just do it.  Period.  It’s not a suggestion, not an option.  It’s a command.  

Paul goes so far as to say: “Do everything in love.^” (1 Cor 16:14)  Not some things, not convenient things, not important things, but EVERY thing.

We are designed to love, to give love and receive love, to love God, to love our fellow man.  We are motivated by love, changed by love, healed by love.  Yet we often don't live it.  

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that if we don’t love, if we are not consciously making an effort to speak in love, to think in love, to listen in love, to obey in love, to BE love--first, foremost and above all--then don’t even bother.  We will do more harm than good.  If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but DO NOT HAVE LOVE, I am ONLY A RESOUNDING GONG or a CLANGING CYMBAL.   If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but DO NOT HAVE LOVE I AM NOTHING.  If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but DO NOT HAVE LOVE, I GAIN NOTHING.” (1 Cor 13:1-3)  Without love, we are nothing.  Not even very little.  We are nothing without love.

What does love look like?  For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.  (Matthew 25:35,36)  Love looks like kindness, caring, nurturing, providing.  It looks like and is sacrifice.  Food costs money.  Nurturing and caring cost vulnerability and compassion.  Providing costs convenience and comfort.  Love costs time and often pain. Is this what our lives, our DAILY lives, look like? 

Whom are we to love?  I tell you, LOVE YOUR ENEMIES and pray for those who persecute you. (Matt 5:44)  It’s easy to love those who love us.  We must love beyond the easy and expected to the difficult and unexpected.  We must love the unlovable.  Period.

Here’s the kicker:  Love is impossible.  It’s impossible because we cannot love enemies and persecutors on our own.  Oh, sure, we can mostly love our spouse and kids pretty well, maybe our families and our friends, but real love, perfect love, true love, is beyond our human capabilities.  Only God can fill our hearts with his love, and He longs to.  I WILL GIVE you a NEW HEART and put a new spirit in you; I WILL REMOVE from you your heart of stone and give you A HEART OF FLESH. (Ezekiel 36:26) 

How do we know if we are living God’s love?  Here’s the Gold Standard Checklist.  Insert your name in the blank:  __________ is patient.  __________ is kind.  _________ does not envy.  __________ does not boast.  __________ is not proud.  __________ does not dishonor others.  __________ is not self-seeking.  __________ is not easily angered.  __________ keeps no record of wrongs.  __________ does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth.  __________ always protects.  __________ always trusts.  __________ always hopes.  __________ always perseveres.  __________ never fails.  (1 Corinthians 13:4-8) 

Ah.  I hear a few Ouches.  I felt some, too.  We all have areas needing improvement.  God can improve us, heal us, help us to love as He loves.  We must let Him. 

My friends, this is a call to arms—to open arms.  To tender hearts.  Now is the time to get rid of anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, and dirty language.   Don’t lie to each other…  Put on your new nature… you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.  Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you... Above all, CLOTHE YOURSELVES WITH LOVE, which binds us all together in perfect harmony. (Colossians 3:8-14)

Above all, love each other deeply, because LOVE COVERS OVER a multitude of sins. (1 Peter 4:8)  Love not only covers our sins, but theirs as well.  It is the most powerful force in the Universe. 

And if we love as God loves?  What then?  "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared FOR THOSE WHO LOVE HIM.” (1 Corinthians 2:9)  That sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?

So yes, they will know we are Christians by our love: Our love for the unlovable.  Our love for the sandpaper people we all are (anyone ever rub you the wrong way?).  Our love for the poor, the rich, the victim, the perpetrator, the politically-opposite, the hostile, the abused, the abuser, the friend, the enemy.  Not with our love but with HIS Love, which He will generously give if we but ASK, RECEIVE and then CHOOSE TO GIVE.

It’s a win-win all the way around.  LOVE, my friends.  LOVE.    

*All emphases mine

Turns Out Old Dogs CAN Learn New Tricks

It may seem from the title that I've got dogs on the brain a lot these days, especially after having written This Post and This Other Post.   Trust me, it's just a metaphor.

Really, it's not the Old Dog that's important so much as the New Trick.

Are ya ready to read it?  Are ya sure?  Okay.  Here is the new trick:

This 41 year old stay-at-home mom, farmer's wife, writer/filmmaker/speaker/kayaker, is going to be a drummer.

No, no, no, there's nothing wrong with your eyesight. You read it correctly.  I said I'm going to be a drummer.  Yes, like real drums.

Yeah, yeah, okay, fine.  You can stop laughing now.

No, seriously.  You can stop laughing.

Well, okay, just because you can't stop laughing doesn't make it any less true.  [sticks her tongue out in your general direction]

 Christmas 2009 saw us buying Lego Rock Band for Matthew.  We got him the game itself, a guitar and a set of drums.  We knew he'd love it and he did.  What we didn't know was that I would love it even more.

After Clinton got it all set up, Matt picked up the guitar and I sat down at the drums.  Before we even began to play the first song I knew it felt like home.  I fell in love.  There really isn't any other way to describe it.

I've always had a really good sense of rhythm.  I think having danced helps, also.  In both dance and drumming your arms and legs are doing different things at the same time.  I think both activities use the same part of my brain, the one that does its own thing when I let my conscious mind take a back seat and just feel.  I'm not saying all dancers can play the drums, but it seems to be working for me.

Somehow, sitting there, I just knew that I could do this.  I knew it like I knew my own name.  I can still completely recall that feeling.  That conviction has never faded.  

I thought and prayed and waited and listened.  The biggest problem was convincing Clinton that I needed drums, specifically electronic drums.  You know, the kind that you plug in to an amplifier.  That you use with headphones so that you don't wake up the kids when they're sleeping because that's the only time you get a minute to sit down anyway.   


Those kind of drums are not cheap.  He made me swear on my mother's life that I would not ask for another Christmas, birthday or anniversary present for the next eight to ten years.  (Okay, not really.  I did offer, though.  Sorry Mom.)

Thirteen months after my Christmas Lego Rock Band Revelation my drums finally arrived.  I sat down with the DVD Clinton got me and learned a few grooves and fills.  I've been banging around ever since, playing along with songs on my iPod.  On March 31 I will start lessons.

I.  Am going.  To.  ROCK!  Whoo-hoo!  [commence happy dancing]  I'm so excited I can barely stand myself.  I am fulfilling a life-long dream I only discovered 15 months ago. 

So that's the basic story of how a middle-aged momma is not so quietly transforming into a cool rocker chick.

Okay, okay.  I admit it.  Now I'm laughing, too.  Sheesh, I couldn't even WRITE that last line with a straight face. 

It's completely unlikely, isn't it?  Unexpected?  Darned near inconceivable?  I've heard of a dealing with a mid-life crisis before, but discovering a mid-life passion?  Really?

And that's what's got me just a little bit bugged about the whole thing.

Why now? 

Why am I only just now discovering this enormous side of myself?  I mean, I'm 41 for crying out loud.  Wouldn't it have been much better to discover this 30 years ago (oh, that makes me feel old)?   I might have been REALLY good instead of just potentially kinda good.  [cue Marlon Brando] "I could've been a contender."

What could my life have been like had I grown up playing the drums?

I think I have an idea.  Knowing myself as I do, I think I would have focused on the drums to the exclusion of everything else. "I'm good at this, I love it, why try anything else?"  I wouldn't be writing or speaking or making films. I wouldn't be open to other aspects of myself, other ways to be used of God in my little corner of the world.  I'd be a more linear person, to my detriment.

Worse, I think I would have focused on myself to the exclusion of my family. I'd be resentful of farming season and the time commitment involved because it would cut into my practice time.  I'd resent living in a small town where there are very few opportunities or venues to play.

I think I'd be much more selfish than I am already.

So maybe God does know something about timing.  And about me.

It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out.  Proverbs 25:2

A Change in Walking Habits

I would like to share with you something that has changed my life, continues to change my life, and if he sticks with it, will also change the life of my oldest son, Matthew.
In early May of 2008 I had a brainstorm. I had been having trouble finding time to walk on the treadmill and read my bible. I decided that if I could do both at the same time, I could probably work these into my life. I had the treadmill already. All I needed was an ipod or some other mp3 player and a copy of the bible in that format.
A couple of days later I was on the phone with my mother. I told her my brilliant idea and she mentioned that her former employer had given her (and everyone else) an ipod that had not been out of the box in the year and a half she'd had it. She offered it to me and I jumped on the offer.
After a quick tutorial on this new (to me) technology, Clinton led me to iTunes to find a daily bible reading. He checked out a couple for me and then showed me the Daily Audio Bible by Brian Hardin. Brian had a nice voice and played serene background music interspersed with nature sounds. I thought this would do very nicely.
So in late May I began listening to the Daily Audio Bible while walking on the treadmill. The 20-30 minute podcasts work in very well with my workout schedule. On days that I don't walk I listen as I can that day. I could have gone back to the January podcasts and played catch up, but I know I would have become discouraged and eventually quit, so I just picked up where Brian was and continued on.
I must admit that the treadmill walking has been, especially lately, VERY hit and miss. I have, however, seen my christian walk transforming with the podcasts, and have completed 2008 on time. I'm proud of myself for that! Yeah, me! And now with the new year (and an extra 5 lbs), I plan to get back on the treadmill and listen to the entire bible this year.
Brian and his crew have also added the Daily Audio Proverb (once a month through the book of Proverbs), the Daily Audio Bible in Spanish and in Hindi, and most importantly to me, the Daily Audio Bible for Kids. Brian's daughter, China, reads from the New Testament, and they will complete the NT 4 times in a year. It takes about 15 minutes a day. Matthew just finished listening to his first podcast and really enjoyed it.
I get no money or any other "promotional considerations" for this blogpost. I simply wanted to share with you this wonderful thing that I've found and has made a huge difference in my life. I won't bore you with any more details than that for now, but I do pray that you will see the evidence of this in my life and in my blogposts.
Check it out for yourself at dailyaudiobible.com, or just search for One Year Daily Bible or Brian Hardin on iTunes.
Even if you do nothing at all with this information, be blessed in 2009!
And thanks for reading. :)

Camp Grandma

Matthew finally came home yesterday. We have been missing him since Christmas Eve. It's like magic, and almost like he never existed, except that Lucy the Dog and Nathan the Little Brother look around our house with a glazed, lost look in their eyes.
It happens every time Clinton's sister and her 3 boys come to town and stay with Clinton's folks. They show up, Matthew disappears.
We do occasionally hear his laughter coming from the "secret base" in the back of their house. We sometimes catch a quick glimpse of his clothing streaking through the kitchen towards the family room and garage. And someone must be driving his 4-wheeler around the woods. If we really concentrate we can make out his outline for a nanosecond at mealtimes. But other than that, he is gone, gone, gone.
We do feel truly blessed to have at least one set of grandparents close by, and that they are in good enough health to play with the boys. I keep trying to get my parents to move closer, and I think I MIGHT be making the slightest headway, but alas, they are not here yet. So while we can't seem to have everything in life the way we want it, we make the very best of the blessings we do have. Even if it means we miss our oldest son for a week or so.