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all regarding the God that still involves Himself in the details of the lives of His people
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Because simple daily Christian living is never what we thought it would be
Take a Stab and Cut to the Truth
Take a Stab and Cut to the Truth
“What in the world does that have to do with anything?” I almost yelled, which startled everyone. I had been quietly peeling potatoes. Just peeling and listening; listening to the sounds of my beautiful family as they teased each other while fixing their salads. I love Sundays. Not only are these the days when more Christians come out of their hiding as regular people and feel free to talk about the Lord openly, but they are the days that our family still gets together to have a large and comfortable afternoon meal. Ahhhh…God and family, and a family who commonly and easily speaks God…nothing could be more restful or pleasing to me.
Usually on these Sundays, for the meal, and hopefully the company, my children bring home strays. Now you may feel that the term I used is a little harsh…Strays. But what else would you call a person lost half way between childhood and adulthood…lost half way between their parents’ home and the independence of a new life…lost half way between what their families believed and what they are sorting out. I would call them strays. And yet, I still believe that in each of our own lives we are all strays…half way between ourselves and the search to be Christ like. So, for either reason, the term is fitting and not too harsh for me. Each week one or more…sometimes several …high school and college age life-travelers come for the food and stay for the fellowship. And on days that there are none…I find myself sad and without great purpose that day.
We have a big family and so that is why I think these new faces feel so at ease. Somehow they can come here and be a part of something bigger…something they miss from home…something that they have only seen on TV…without the risk of always being singled out. Maybe the size or the energy level is just strange and interesting. Who knows? Actually, just writing this makes me feel proud of my comfortable family and the relationship we have. So many opinions and discussions and topics fly around the table at lunch that there is always a place to fit in. Even those, whose first language is not English, seem to be able to read faces and gestures and add themselves to the pleasant chaos.
But when I startled them all…in the midst of peeling potatoes, eyes wide and wild, and knife in hand, there was silence.; absolute silence in the whole house. Even the cats stood at attention. In fact, I startled myself. The volume of my words and the sharp definitiveness was more that the calm chatter of the atmosphere could resonant above. The volume, and the words cut to the heart of a deeper matter…and the very energy of them demanded an explanation.
So I said a prayer and asked God to help me finish what my outburst had started. With eyes starring and questions on each face, I stood in silence, like a performer about to unleash an excellent and well-rehearsed dramatic selection. But fear overtook me. And my silence continued.
I looked at each of them with eyes of remembrance. I saw them in my minds picture of the day I brought them home…wrapped in the special blanket I had chosen just for their arrival. I saw them in little league with their uniform pants held to their bodies only by a tightly latched belt. I saw them at their baptism when my heart rejoiced for their proclamation of salvation…oh what joy truly flooded my soul the day my children and my savior become one in public confession. I saw them at their graduations with moments of grandeur and completion…and other moments of speculation and confused anticipation of what was to come. And I saw them in their most awful moments…filled with regrets and disillusionments and just plain sadness. I saw, in that brief moment of time, all that they could become…all that could be lost…and all that they needed me to be right now…in this moment…and I stood there in silence just shaking my head.
Actually all of me was shaking. I could feel the quivers in my fingers and the knocking of my knees. And the longer I stood in silence, the more obtrusive the moment became to the beauty and comfort of the afternoon meal.
But how could I tell them? How could I put into words what I knew to be true…what I felt so passionately about that it raced through my soul and out of my lips with a startling echo before I knew what was happening? And now, here I was, in this awkward and difficult moment. How could I put into words all the mistakes I had made in life and sum it up with a convincingly succinct phrase that would lead them to know I was absolutely right? How can you teach a child…even of higher age…the lesson behind the information? How can you save them from the years of wandering and mistakes and regrets and pain that you have already suffered…so that they can intimately approach God with fewer scars and in less time than you did. How can you use your own life to save your children? I did not know. But I desperately wanted to.
So I took a stab at it…with potato in my hand, and began to quietly but confidently get to the point. My husband says that he didn’t even notice that any time had passed at all, but to me…it had felt like I had stood there for a lifetime…processing all that needed said and how I was to say it. Isn’t it amazing what God can do in just the blink of an eye? “What in the world does that have to do with anything?” I repeated to get my mind back on the issue. “I mean, do you think that it matters to God if other Christians somehow believe that?” And again, there was silence. No one at that table, no one in the room, not even my husband was willing to answer the question that I had presented. No one ever wants to answer up for God…at least not in public…at least not without praying about it first.
And I hope that praying is what they do. Individually in the quiet thoughts of their own heads and hearts I hope they heard me over and over yelling “What in the world does that have to do with it?” And I hope they still hear it bellow through their decisions before they make a choice to do anything. I pray that they learn to ask themselves the question of God’s perspective on each thing that they do, and everything they try to accomplish in their young lives…because I believe it is the only solution to living an honest and pure life…pleasing to the Lord.
My life has been about forgiveness: forgiving others for the terrible things they have done to me, forgiving myself about being so naive and easily manipulated and led down paths I never thought I would go, forgiving people today who imitate the Pharisees while they proclaim they are imitating my Lord. But mostly, my life has been about falling at the feet of the One who loves me most and accepting His forgiveness. My regret in life is not the place I am today in Him…it is the time and energy I wasted in getting here. That is the regret I want to save my children from. That is the influence I want to push on them…and all of the strays they bring to our home.
The silence ended as one new person at the table laughed and said, “Does anyone really know what part of Evolution Christians should believe?” and everyone began new conversations…and the afternoon passed. Laughter and teasing and the drying of the dishes all ran together in a blaze of wonderful and comfortable time well spent. But each time their eyes passed mine, I noticed that they stood still for just a brief moment and connected to the depth of wisdom that I had spoken. Oh, it wasn’t much. Wisdom does not have to be long and complicated…it just has to be from the Lord.
So the next time that the conversation in your home leads to some ridiculous, half joking statement that is in direct conflict with what you know…what you have spent your life learning…about satan and how he slithers his way into our home, or, about God and His majestic character…and His expectations of us…then, please take a stab at asking Him for the words. And then open your mouth and use that sharp-edged sword to cut to the truth.
In obedience
Rhonda D Loucks
So I took a stab at it…with potato in my hand, and began to quietly but confidently get to the point. My husband says that he didn’t even notice that any time had passed at all, but to me…it had felt like I had stood there for a lifetime…processing all that needed said and how I was to say it. Isn’t it amazing what God can do in just the blink of an eye? “What in the world does that have to do with anything?” I repeated to get my mind back on the issue. “I mean, do you think that it matters to God if other Christians somehow believe that?” And again, there was silence. No one at that table, no one in the room, not even my husband was willing to answer the question that I had presented. No one ever wants to answer up for God…at least not in public…at least not without praying about it first.