joy in God answering my "whys"

Several months ago I was at a lovely worship dance event and the leaders prayed with the participants, expressing God's heart for each of us individually. One of the things the Lord said to me through them at the time was that He is going to answer all my "whys', that He delights to answer them, and that He wants me to ask Him to. I remember that this morning as I reflect, on my day off, on my various reactions this week during my settling in to the incredibly hard work, physical and people-wise, of my new job. I have wondered WHY I took the job, with my already stressful and busy life. But each day He has been teaching me so much about myself, about others, about how to deal with people, about how things happen, about this community, that I have thanked Him again and again, in my physical and emotional pain, for the job. So today, as I appreciate every single moment of a day off as I have never appreciated them before, I rejoice again at the opportunity God has given me, and at the way He IS answering my whys, and, most of all, the way He is teaching me things I need to know, the way He is filling in gaps in my human experience about interacting with people. Someone with an intelligent mind in academic pursuits can often have difficulty interacting with people, frequently being misunderstood through having big explanations for things, seeing all the nuances but sometimes missing the main point. In this job, there is only time for the correct response, the few words that hit the mark. Anything else could result in a crisis with a customer or fellow worker. So I embrace this yoke that can feel like a strait jacket at times, and say "Thank you, Lord, for this kindly yoke." !!!!

joy in the blessings from commitment

I wake again at the same hour and begin the morning routine I started with this new job. If I did not have to go to work today, on this lovely slightly rainy morning, I could go back to bed. After all, my tired muscles are making it hard for me to sleep sometimes. But because I have this job, and I am committed to getting certain things done before I go to work, like having quiet time, eating a good breakfast, phoning a friend or my daughter in Uganda, or doing Tim Horton's with my other daughter, I get up. ( with a groan). Through my haze I try to remember what I thought I would wear today. Something cool that matches my work smock, not cool as in trendy, but cool as in temperature cool. I think about that smock, and the meditation I wrote about wearing a yoke, and the positive feedback I got on my "original" thinking about the single yoke. My smock is like a yoke - really it is a pinafore, a pinny as they used to say, worn over my head, tied at the waist at both sides, with a big label of whose it and I belong to when I wear it, with pockets to carry essentials as I work, my reading glasses, kleenex, my locker key, and the colour chart for sorting clothes. It symbolizes my commitment to my job, to that discipline, that role, that way of acting and speaking. This week this "yoke" feels a bit "heavy". But already I have learned so much about myself, other people, working situations, and been blessed with bargains which will really help me.

Yesterday's meditation spoke of how God is with me. Of course He is always WITH us, always FOR us. But somehow, in the midst of this discipline that mostly is against my own inclination at this point, I feel Him WITH me and FOR me in a clearer way. My yoke then becomes of His making, as I chose it with His guidance, and received the job with His favour. Now He has the opportunity to demonstrate to me on a daily basis that He makes it "kindly" and makes the burdens "light". These are my blessings from commitment in this situation. Of course we all know them in so many other ways. But somehow this morning, thinking about His yoke, and yokes, and commitment in this way encourages me and leads me. Onward and upward!! I am a Muskoka yokey!! Ha Ha.

joy in HIs faithfulness..working with mine

A while back the Lord told me that His plans for me would work out as my faithfulness entwined with His faithfulness. That is what today felt like. As my previous post indicates, I went with an attitude of meekness to meet potential difficulties. What I found then was new joy in being there, and then I found Him meeting my needs in various ways, helping relationships grow and become established, and hence as I felt more and more comfortable, then I could feel myself in free and joyful ways, as well as maintaining a stance of meekness. The fruit of both brought me joy in the midst of the very hard work I was doing, and new admiration for the other staff who cope with huge difficulties on the job and in their own lives each day.

joy in learning meekness (again!)

"Meekness is not weakness". I remember my friend's words as I struggle with my reactions to harshness and misunderstanding again. I find the boundaries of my situation at work force me to learn meekness and am grateful that it brings meaning out of what happens. If I responded some other way I would get into trouble in so many ways, let alone not show the character of Christ. I reflect on how much I still have to learn about this fruit of the Spirit. I compare it to the way I am taught to respond when I am supply teaching. I am glad that at least I am more comfortable in showing meekness and humility than I am in rising up in reaction and self-defence. Or am I? Is it just that I know this is the only way in this situation, and the best way? Whichever it is, I am glad that I know the way, that I have been here before many times in my life, and that Someone Who knows and loves and understands me more than anyone in the universe has walked the road before me. And since He happens to be King of the universe, I take comfort that in His time, anything that needs to be sorted out will be. In His time. As I write these words I remember the words of a song I have often sung around campfires and with children: "In His time, in His time; He makes all things beautiful in His time. Lord, my life to you I bring, may each song I have to sing be to you a lovely thing, in Your time." I have actually blended two verses in this without meaning to. But I guess my Spirit turned them into a prayer for today. May that be so for you also. I have sung many songs in my life, and continue to. I am glad that I am learning again the lesson of learning to "sing songs" in the midst of struggle and hurt. This is good. This is fruitful. May I learn more meekness today.

joy in a new creation

This is the new creation I wrote for my blog for www.whateverhesays.blogspot.com. I think you will enjoy reading the posts from others in this team devotional written by writers from The Word Guild, an association of Christian writers. It is a privilege to begin to write for it on Wednesdays of each week.

The “Kindly” Yoke and the Burden Bearer

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”Matt. 11:28-30

“Go to bed with the birdies, the grown-ups say.
For dear little children, it is the best way.
But I don’t see, when I’m so big and sturdy,
How I can get into the nest of a birdie.”

This delightful poem from my childhood came to me today as I meditated upon a commonly presented teaching on the “easy yoke”. The idea is that we are yoked with Jesus, and because we are then our burden becomes light because he bears it for us. The illustration in words is usually that he carries the heavy part of the yoke, and the heavy part of our burden, and yet my understanding of the science of yokes is that each side has to be equally balanced. The common logic seems to be that we would be like an ox in one side of a yoke, and Jesus would be like the other ox, only by some magical occurrence his side of the yoke would be heavy, and our side would be light. The absurd logic reminds me of that picture of getting into the nest of a birdie. And, like the poet, even the child in us can think with true logic and say the words don’t make sense. Furthermore, yoked oxen don’t carry burdens, they pull loads. (I’ll reserve meditations on loads and burdens for another blog)

However, if we take the other dictionary definition of yoke as a “frame designed to fit across somebody’s shoulders with balanced loads suspended at each end” then we imagine ourselves fitted with a yoke that suits us and enables us to carry the loads that we would not be able to carry without the yoke. This kind of yoke could be made for us by God, and the burdens thus carried would not be too heavy. There is a combination of the yoke of His making and choosing, and the burdens He asks us to carry with the yoke He has fashioned for us. Now that logic makes a lot of sense to me.

Next, let’s look at the word for “easy”. Chrestos, the Greek word usually translated as easy, “primarily signifies ‘fit for use, able to be used’ and ‘good, virtuous, mild, pleasant’ (in contrast to what is hard, harsh, sharp, bitter). “Kindly” is considered the best rendering of the word, instead of easy. The word kindly suggests the personal care and understanding of our Heavenly Father as He assesses our capacities and situations, and puts the combination together that is comfortable enough for us to bear. Nobody can think of wearing a yoke as being “easy”; there is no doubt that this is work, but He helps us manage the work, making it “bearable”. God, our great stress-buster.

For us that work might involve much more than ministry or career. It could be a relationship that is work, or even many of them. Whatever the stress, the load, the burden, we can trust that if we approach it with His yoke then He will show us what part of it we have to “carry” on our own.

And what then of our Saviour who bears our burdens? We are told to cast our cares upon the Lord because He cares for us. ( Psalm 55: 22) I like the image from a wonderful old hymn. Rather than thinking of my Lord as a plodding ox shouldering my load in a lumbering impersonal sort of way, I see His kindliness in these words:

“Low at his feet lay thy burden of carefulness;
High on his heart he will bear it for thee,
Comfort thy sorrows, and answer thy prayerfulness,
Guiding thy steps as may best for thee be.”

John Samuel Bewley Monsell (1811 – 1875)
“Worship the Lord in the Beauty of Holiness”

So, instead of God our friendly neighbourhood ox, we have our Almighty Father, Lord of all creation, who bears our burdens HIGH ON HIS HEART. Imagine - God Almighty enthroned on high, carrying our intolerable burdens HIGH on His heart, while we, individually fitted and suited with HIS yoke, carry the parts of our loads we are supposed to carry in a way that is manageable, because of His kindly care and provision for us.

Still, there’s something to be said for having that friendly ox around. Seems to me that maybe we can look at it both ways. After all, isn’t it nice to think we could get into the nest of a birdie?

joy in the blessings in the valleys

Today has been a hard day at work for many reasons. But there are lots of lessons to learn. And of course the blessing that God will draw me closer to Him through it. And my daughter has been writing about how God is doing that in her life too, on the other side of the world. Her valley is producing new joysprings in her life. It encourages me to press in for more of the ones I will receive in some of the new valleys I am going through. One great blessing and challenge that has already come is this blog, and through it an invitation to write for a team blog, a devotional written by various members of The Word Guild, the Christian writers' association I have joined after being at their annual conference. I have chosen Wednesdays as my day to write a devotional piece for them. I would love you to read it on their blog, and read those of the others who are writing for it. Tune in to www.whateverhesays.blogspot.com. I will also post the blog I write for them on my own blog on Wednesdays.

joy in God's outrageous grace

Today was a busy day, my one day off this week from my new job. I used every moment as wisely and fully as I could. One of the things was planning the songs for the contemporary worship service next Sunday evening. The speaker's topic is Grace, and since I have to lead this time I had to find the songs and work with her ideas too. It turned out to be a precious time, singing through songs, listening to samples via the internet, praying for the best choices. It lightened my load, and energized me with His power, proving as always that His presence is in His praise. And furthermore it was a sign of His grace...coming just after a heavy phone call session with a dear friend who has intolerable burdens. It can be easy to slip into great worry and despair as we witness the struggles of others. But when we are reminded of His grace and power we can feel it more, believe it more, and for me that seems to be a continuing process, despite all the many years of being a Christian. I imagine it is much the same for all of us.

joy in the kindly comfort of God

We watched Kandahar last night. What an evocative statement of the harshness of that life. One good effect of seeing such a movie might be to recognize how soft our own lives seem in comparison, but, in reality, we all reel at every experience of harshness. Harsh is a word I have used a lot lately, about the situations friends have endured, or about my perceptions of the attitudes of certain Christians or ministries. Sometimes the spirit underneath can remind us of Jane Eyre's experience at Lowood School. (That was another movie we watched this week! It might sound as if I watch a lot of movies, but I don't. We don't have T.V. - just the occasional movie watched on a laptop usually.) I can find harshness in my own spirit in a discussion with my daughter or husband. I suppose I react out of my own vulnerability, as we all do. We all look for comfort and safety, in God, and in others. How precious that we are reminded of that in our Lord's words - that His yoke is easy and His burden is light, read today at church. I have just looked up the truest translation from the Greek of the word for "easy" and it is "kindly". What a lovely word, evoking so much more, and certainly cancelling out the harshness. When we are yoked with this kindly God, Jesus Christ, through the Holy Spirit, then we can endure the harshness of life and the world because He keeps us safe and comforted.