The Importance of Punctuation

Have you ever seen those memes about the importance of punctuation? Here's one:

Silly, right? Well, punctuation in our lives is pretty important as well. For instance, the latter part of 2 Corinthians 6:2:

Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.

I'm not questioning the editors, necessarily, but living our lives, talking to others about Jesus as though that sentence ends with an exclamation point, experiencing the urgency of those words is not a bad idea at all.

Likewise, Ann Voskamp, in her book One Thousand Gifts talks about the beliefs we live after tragedy:

No, God.
No God.

How far is the transition, the fall, if you will, from No, say it isn't so, to God is not so? God is not good. God is not merciful. God is not all-powerful. God is not. In grammar, it's the distance or the difference of a comma. A mere pause. In life it is similar but, more significantly, it's what occurs in that pause. It's what occurs as we begin to process the depths of our pain. It's what occurs as we emerge from the dull echo of shock to the razor-sharp screams of reality. It's what occurs when we start to grieve the dreams that will never be realized, the birthdays that will never be celebrated, the paths that will never be forged. It's what occurs when the grey dawn of the next day drives out the dark and we are forced to reckon with What next? What happens in that pause is critical to our beliefs, and beliefs are a matter of life and death.

In Deuteronomy 30:19, 20, God speaks to the people --His people --Israel:

I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; that you may love the Lord your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days;

He sets before them the ways that will prosper them, ways that will lead to life and flourishing. He also warns them that to disobey is to choose death. Think of an owner's manual, giving instruction on how to properly use, service, or even assemble a particular tool: Failure to follow the above instructions could lead to injury or death. You've read those words before. Did you heed them? "Well, sure," you might say. "I know nothing about this product!" Just because we inhabit these bodies doesn't mean we know anything about them. We seek the advice of "professionals" to help us when we're sick. Why? Because we are so not professionals when it comes to what's best for ourselves. Why do we think that when it comes to the things of the spirit world, we know it all? Why, when something traumatic occurs, do we not seek God in the pause? Why, when we lose someone or something we love, do we separate ourselves from --or worse --blame God as though He has no idea what loss is all about? Why do we not take that moment right after No, say it isn't so to declare, "But God You are, and though I am hanging on by a thread, I will hang here until You cut me loose"? Why do we not take that interruption and seek Him?

The pause will probably come --I pray for us all they do not --but it's what we do during the pause that is most important, a matter of life and death. 

Photo courtesy LuAnn Martin

Midweek: Step Ten

I am going to tell you something that might sound a little strange to you: I am always discovering what it means to be married. We will celebrate our eighteenth wedding anniversary this year (Lord willing) and yet Scott and I are always encountering new situations together --good and not so good; we're always finding new things out about one another's preferences or past experiences. And, as we age, we're always developing different habits --good and not so good, new hopes, revisiting dreams that were never realized (Is now the time?), and thinking of unique ways to enjoy each day in one another's company. We are living out this married life together --an objective very different from saying some words before a judge, carrying around a marriage license, or wearing a wedding band. (There is a reason those words are called vows, by the way.)

I continue to take personal inventory daily, and when I am wrong, I promptly admit it.

Step Ten of Walking the Twelve Steps with Jesus Christ, is the upward call, the moving forward, the living out of the commitment to sobriety we have made, daily evidence of the vow we took. It is the difficult task of living the solution to our problems --a much better, more appropriate, life-giving solution to our problems than the poor excuse for a solution (addiction) we tried previously. We have come to acknowledge that, in the past, we used addictive behaviors to numb ourselves to problems --wrongs we did, wrongs done to us. Rather than confronting these things with the light of God's Word, we hid from and muted the voice of truth with our bad habits. We acknowledged that God alone is able to take us from who we were to who we were made to be and agreed to follow Him in the way. We made an inventory of those hang-ups, confessed our role in those events or the cover-up that followed, and asked Jesus to heal us from them, to break their hold over us. Knowing that our previous actions impacted those around us, we determined which apologies and amends were necessary and possible, and made them happen. Having given our past over to the King, and "settled" as much of it as is within our power to do so, it is time to walk in this newer, freer way. It is time to live a life of sobriety.

For the sake of the bigger picture, I want to tell you, it will not be easy every day. As with living a married life, there will be days it feels liberating and safe and joyous. There will be days when the greatest thing holding us to the sober life is our word, the vow we have made, the course to which we have committed. Because of our commitment, we will know sobriety is liberating; we will know it is safe; we will know it is a joyous thing to handle circumstances with a clear mind, fully engaged with Jesus in the process. Despite what our feelings are telling us. Daily we will look at ourselves using the light of God's Word; we will confess our sin and choose to walk in obedience to our Master. And this is how we will live. It will be a "voyage of discovery." We will find new ways to deal with old problems, rather than creating new problems through the use of old ways. We will journey boldly with Jesus as His Spirit finishes the work that has begun, and spiritual fruit is matured. We will discover new things for which to be grateful and, perhaps, be given opportunity to realize dreams put on hold long ago. We will live a sober life in union with our Savior, pressing toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (Phil. 3:13, 14)!  

    

God's Timing

Scott and I have what I consider to be three sets of children. I had my children in my twenties. As I recently began going over some of my journals from those early days of motherhood, I see what appears to be the boundless energy I had at the time. My children benefited from all of that get-up-and-go which today seems to have got-up-and-went. I met Scott's children when I was in my forties, two decades (!) after I'd had my two. Scott and I cared for them together. They benefited from the remaining energy we had and the wisdom we gained from years of trial and error in our own lives. Enter, almost two decades later, our youngest. Hers, his, and ours, right? And I often marvel at what we have to offer him, even at this later stage.

Adoption was not something that was on my radar when my husband suggested it. In fact, years before, we'd watched a movie based on an adoption story. Scott enjoyed the film but didn't seem to embrace the idea as something we could or should do. I began praying for God to change his heart and did so for years. As time passed, our lives became full of our children's activities and the joy of grandchildren; I stopped asking God to move us toward adoption. Then the words came, Do you think we should adopt? Let me just say, this could be one of those stories where God fills an empty space with things other than what I'd originally hoped and then, just when I was ready to kick back, enjoy all I'd received, He gave me my original request. What joy! What love lavished on His daughter! This could be that story. But when my husband posed that question, my response was a resounding NO! I was done with the adoption dream. I'd retired. I was A-OK teaching and writing and doing all those things I'd been looking forward to doing. Besides, what could two old fogies offer a young child? Did he really want to go on his class trip pointing out to his friends the two senior citizens who were his parents?

BUT GOD. He doesn't call the equipped, He equips the called, right? God made it happen. In His time. Two decades or three, it wouldn't have mattered. When I look at our calendar and see just about every day earmarked with some activity --his or ours or both --I see the grace of God. God at work in our life doing what we cannot do on our own. (Willard) The progress this child has made, the peace that has come to be in our home, the wisdom with which we have handled some difficult situations, the trust this precious boy has for us and the trust we have that God will provide, the energy to say Yes when our child is seeking to be a child, and the love that has developed among people who, less than three years ago, were complete strangers --God. He is worthy of all the glory! And when I hear our youngest say things like You've got more trucks than Carter has pills! --well, that's me. I take full responsibility.