Month: December 2016

Embracing the Wonderful

Posted on by Wendy
What we choose to focus on in life, is a choice.
What we choose to focus on in life, is a choice.

I had the opportunity to watch the movie, “It’s A Wonderful Life,” over the weekend. It’s my daughter’s favorite Christmas movie and perhaps one of the best movies ever made. As usual, she and I were crying like babies at the final scene.

She commented during the movie, that the only thing she doesn’t like about it, is we never get to see the villain, Mr. Potter, get what’s coming to him. I completely understand her point. Although he’s mean-spirited throughout the film, towards the end, he’s a criminal. He takes money that isn’t his and then tries to have George Bailey arrested.

Most of us know by heart, the verse from Galatians 6:7, “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.” We want to see Potter get justice.

We love the idea of good always winning, but in the movie, good does win, just not in the way George Bailey had in mind.

Every time Mr. Potter tried to knock George down, something good came of it. When he insisted that George not see the world and stay home to run the family business, George married the love of his life. When he tried to put George out of business when there was a run on the bank, George used his own hard earned money to convince people not to panic and keep the doors of the savings and loan open.

That selfless act planted seeds of mercy and compassion in the hearts of  the townspeople that would sprout much later in the movie when he desperately needed them.

And when George’s hour was the darkest, Mr. Potter kicked him one more time and he decided to take his own life. Meanwhile, the entire town prayed for him. God listened and sent an angel and George decided he wanted to live even if he was going to jail for a crime he did not commit.

But, there was more intervention going on too. (There always is.)  All of those kindnesses and mercies that George had been spreading for all of those years sprouted that night and just about everyone in town showed up at his house on Christmas Eve, with money to donate to replace what was stolen.

While we didn’t get to see Mr. Potter get his, it never was about Potter anyway. The story was about George. The story was about him doing the right thing, even though things never went like he planned or wanted them to go. The story was about him learning to embrace the life that he was given and the people who God entrusted to him.

His story is our story. Very often in life, things do not go like we plan and all Christians have a common enemy who likes to knock us down. But, if we keep our eyes focused on God and not our own Mr. Potter, and continue to sow seeds of kindness, mercy and love, they will eventually sprout, just as George’s did. God will grow something beautiful with all of our perceived failures and weaknesses if we allow Him to.

Who knows, He may send us angels too; the Bible tells us we may have even entertained them and not know it. There’s a lot of negativity to focus on in life. There always is; but focusing on God and all of the good He gives us, is a choice, one we are free to make.

George Bailey reminded me. Perhaps you needed reminding too.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

 

Intentional Prayers

Posted on by Wendy
We can learn to pray for God's will not our own.
We can learn to pray for God’s will not our own.

My mama and I were talking on the phone a couple of nights ago about her upcoming trip to Canada. She has never been to that particular part of Canada and was super excited. She was a little bummed when she learned that her dog sledding excursion was cancelled because there wasn’t enough snow.

I completely understood. I mean, for a lifelong Georgia girl, the idea of having enough snow to go dog sledding, is pretty exciting, kind of exotic. We chatted for a while longer and as we were saying goodbye, she asked me to pray for snow, but not a blizzard.

We laughed at that and said good-bye.

I thought about our conversation the next day. She was just joking. She’s actually quite a prayer warrior, but in our customer service driven society, I feel like we often try to get picky and sometimes downright bossy, with our prayers.

We pray for the perfect job, but we don’t want to move or work harder. We pray for rain, but not on Saturday because we have plans that day. We don’t pray for simply enough money; we pray to win the lottery.

We pray for healing both physically and emotionally, but want it to be immediate, involving no work on our own part, even though we often made the choices that put us in the need of healing. We pray about losing weight, but keep eating cookies.

When Jesus’ disciples asked Him how to pray, the prayer we call, “The Lord’s Prayer,” was born. One of the first parts of that prayer has to do with surrendering to God’s will. That’s not easy when we are raised with slogans like, “have it your way” and “you make your own destiny.” Perhaps we should ask ourselves if we believe that God’s plans for us are good. Do we trust in God’s destiny for us?

Jesus also tells us to ask for our daily bread, not for riches. Most of us are not content with that concept either. We want to have and spend as much as possible.

But, God was well aware that life for His people on earth will always have ongoing tension between the physical and the spiritual. We live on the earth for a time, but we are not supposed to be of it. He sent us Jesus to rescue us from our own nature.

Jesus became one of us. Taught us. Healed us. Died for us to save us and then rose for us. We can learn to pray like true children of God because Jesus taught us how in Matthew and still teaches us today through the Holy Spirit.

Advent seems like the ideal time to be a little more intentional about our prayers. Thankfully, we have Heaven cheering us on.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

 

 

December Reflections

Posted on by Wendy
Perhaps the best gift we can give this season is prayer.
Perhaps the best gift we can give this season is prayer.

Today is the first day of December. The Christmas season is well underway. I’m hearing Christmas songs playing on the radio. I’m seeing houses decorated with lights. I’m seeing cars, with trees strapped to the top. That always makes me smile.

I have seen a huge board outside our cafeteria, full of wishes of children for Christmas, in our Secret Santa program. There is everything from socks to bicycles on that board and all kinds of things in between. I saw many parents take an item at our Thanksgiving feast and then when an e-mail went out appealing for help with all that remained, I saw some of those same parents come and pick another item.

I have seen amazing generosity at the school I am blessed to work in. I have seen God at work in this season.

I have also seen an incredible amount of tragedy this season. Gatlinburg, Tennessee, is in ruins. A wild fire burned a huge portion of it. Many people lost their homes and some even lost their lives. But, I also saw the rain all Southerners had been desperately hoping and praying for that eventually helped to control those mountain fires.

I find it kind of interesting that while a good portion of the fires blazing in the Georgia, Tennessee and North Carolina mountains appear to be man-made; it took the power of God to finally get the best of them.

In my own little town, there have been two families who lost a father within a week of each other and another family who lost a daughter. When a co-worker came by my desk with a post it note to ask me to pray for one of those families, I could see God at work. When my pastor’s wife asked me to pray for another, I could see God at work and when a brand new Facebook friend, asked for prayers for the third family, I could again, see God at work.

We live in a broken world on this side of Heaven. There’s sickness, and death, and tragedy here. There are wild fires that sometimes burn out of control. But, there’s beauty here too, and generosity that sometimes brings me to tears. Sure, there’s plenty of hate, but there’s more love and love trumps hate every time.

As I think about the celebration of the birth of our Savior, I find myself wondering if this season isn’t perhaps a season that the enemy seeks to attack us the most. The birth of Christ was really the official beginning of Satan’s demise and since deception and destruction are his mantra, wouldn’t he use this time to target believers?

I feel a deep urge to pray in this season, to pray for the people of Tennessee, and the people who are struggling with sickness, and the people who are struggling financially, and for the people who are mourning.

I pray that those who feel lost and alone, will find the comforting arms of Jesus. Maybe this season, what our country needs more than anything, is some prayer warriors, people who are willing to stand in the gaps for people who are too weary to pray for themselves. It’s possible that in this moment in time, it’s our opportunity to, “Prepare the way of the Lord.”

Perhaps you would like to join me.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂