What's In A Name

Earlier this afternoon, a friend asked me the highlight of my day. I jokingly (but maybe not so jokingly 😊) said the chicken and cheese wrap that I had for lunch. I also said that I knew some names and that knowing names made me happy. And it did.

If you were with me at this time last year, then you know that I was feeling completely defeated. I knew no names. I was not very graceful toward myself for my rightful ignorance. And I felt completely out of place.

Today, though, I only felt rusty—not defeated—and I think it’s because I knew more names than not—even in the car rider line!

Friends: There is power in names.

At the beginning of the year, I began a list of names for God. I’ve been compiling this list from the prayers in my Moravian devotion book. Just reading the names, or descriptions, of God has expanded my view of God and reminded me just how big God is.

I know the list is long, but I encourage you to read it, see which names jump out to you (in a positive or negative way), and then allow yourself to wonder why. What exactly is speaking to you at this point in your life? What is stretching you? Who is God to you? And if you feel comfortable, I’d love for you to share.

Friends: There is power in names…

Of students, parents, and teachers.

And of God.

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All knowing God
Almighty God
Beautiful Savior
Blessed Redeemer
Christ
Christ Jesus
Christ our mediator and redeemer
Comforter and Sustainer
Compassionate Lord
Creative God
Creator God
Creator Lord
Dear Lord
Divine Comforter
Eternal God
Eternal Lord
Everlasting Lord
Father
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
Forgiving God
Giver of life
Giving Lord
God
God of compassion
God of courage
God of Creation
God of Grace
God of history, God of eternity
God of hope
God of humility and God of true power
God of forgiveness
God of mercy and love
God of our salvation
God of peace
God of provision
God our provider
God of redemption
God of steadfast love
God of wholeness
God who has always been and will be for us
Gracious God
Gracious Lord
Gracious Shepherd
Great Voice of Truth and Wisdom
Guardian of our very being
Heavenly, almighty God
Heavenly Father
Heavenly God
Heavenly Guide
Heavenly One
Holy Comforter
Holy Compassionate One, who restores our souls
Holy God
Holy One
Holy Savior
Holy Spirit
Jesus
Kindly Lord
Lord
Lord Jesus
Lord of All
Loving God
Loving Teacher
Magnificent Lord
Maker of all things life-giving and timeless
Master of all, judge of people and nations
Merciful Lord
Mighty Advocate
Mighty God
Nurturing Lord
O Commander of our souls
O God
O God of Wisdom
O Holy Spirit
O Lord
Omnipotent God
Omnipresent God
Omniscient God
O Spirit, our sustainer
Our Father who dwells in heaven
Our Redeemer
Patient Lord
Protector of Peace
Redeemer
Redeeming Lord
Righteous Lord
Ruler of Nations
Shepherd of the sheep
Son of our Creator
Sweet Jesus
Teacher
Triumphant Lord
Truest Neighbor
Understanding Jesus
Vivacious Creator

Bullet

As I write this post tonight, Bullet the Dog is making his nightly rounds. He asks me to let him out. He runs around the house and marks his territory, comes back inside, drinks some water, begs for a bone, and repeats this cycle until he is satisfied. When he is satisfied, he finds my dad, prepares his place, and goes to sleep. If my dad moves to another room, Bullet moves with him. For the rest of the night, wherever my dad is, there Bullet will be. Once his basic needs are met, Bullet’s only concern is being with the person he loves most in the world…because, ultimately, he knows that that person loves and will take care of him. And my dad does love Bullet…

I’ve said this before, but I can’t help but say it again. I wonder what would happen if we lived more like Bullet—in total love and adoration of our Master who is not only our Provider but our Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer. I wonder what would happen if we lived more like the dog in this picture—in total contentment just to be—not missing the beauty or sacredness of the moment due to worries—but breathing through the movement or stillness and taking it all in…

Prayer of the Year

Each year at the beginning of the school year, I write a prayer to place on my desk for the year. As I was setting up my room today, I saw last year’s prayer still on my desk. For the first time, I decided to leave my prayer the same two years in a row. It may be simple, but I think it says all that I need to say. Maybe it says what you need to say, too, dear friend:

Dear God,
Help.
Help me be who you want me to be and to do what you want me to do.
And help me remember that I am exactly where I need to be because it is where I am.
I love you.
So much.
Amen.

Show Up For Your People

In joy and sorrow;
heartache and grief;
celebration and transition;
beginnings and endings;
life and death—
Sometimes the only thing we can do is show up.
Show up for your people, friends.
And let them show up for you.
Watch and wait.
Pray.
Place your feet firmly on the ground and
Breathe deep.
For being together on this journey is what Love is all about.

And So I Keep Writing

8.12.19—And So I Keep Writing

I have the privilege of being friends with quite a few of my former students. I love seeing how they’ve grown and what they’re doing with their lives. I have students in the military, students who are teachers, students who are parents, students who are artists. One of the latter posted a picture last week that really spoke to me. It said: “Artists are people driven by the tension between the desire to communicate and the desire to hide.”

I get that. There are times when I feel like I have so much to say—and I want to say it. But there are other times when I feel as if I’ve got nothing to say (or maybe I’ve got too much to say)—and I want to hide. Lately, I’ve been in a place of hiding, and writing has been hard.

Evenso, I know that I need to write. I know that I need to keep up this discipline even though it is hard.

Romans 5 says: Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

And so I keep writing…hoping that somehow I will find and offer hope…because hope does not put us to shame…even when the world seems dark and there don’t seem to be enough words to say.

Litany of Thanksgiving

It’s easy to be discouraged these days. Turn on the news. Read the newspaper or glance at the headlines online. There is a lot of darkness. A lot of anger and pain. A lot of division and hurt. A lot of doubt and uncertainty. A lot of wondering where God is and what God is doing. And yet. There is much for which to be grateful.

I spent last week in the mountains leading worship for a children’s camp. In preparation for worship, God laid upon my heart to lead a service of thankfulness. I updated the following litany from a book of worship from the 1950s. Thankfulness and praise are timeless and necessary…especially in times like these. Will you join me in this praying this litany tonight?

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For the rains of spring, the sunshine summer, the falling leaves of autumn, and the quiet snows of winter,
We lift up thankful hearts.
For all the workers in mines and fields, factories and offices, hospitals and schools, churches and battle fields, houses and shops, whose work has given us all that we truly need,
We lift up thankful hearts.
For all the dreamers in every land and age, whose creativity has given us music, poetry, and art to connect us to one another and this world,
We lift up thankful hearts.
For the love of our friends and family members, whose presence brings peace and assures us that our lives have value for others,
We lift up thankful hearts.
For the privilege of school, where we have the opportunity learn and grow,
We lift up thankful hearts.
For the gift of life in this world, where we have the honor of loving You more and more each day,
We lift up thankful hearts.
Amen.

The Love Of God

Two nights ago, my mom and I finished a puzzle that a friend brought us from Disney World. We all started the puzzle together, worked on it individually, worked on it with kids, didn’t work on it for awhile, and finally finished it after a week’s worth of diligent work. It’s a double-sided puzzle with images from the movie “Up” on each side. The love that Carl and Ellie share is clear in each image…

Sara Groves is my favorite. Her latest full-length album, “Abide With Me,” is a compilation of hymns, and for the past week or more I have one particular hymn stuck in my head: “The Love of God.” She didn’t write the hymn, but her arrangement has made the song accessible to me, and I absolutely adore the second verse. It reads:

“Could we with ink the ocean fill
And were the skies of parchment made
Were every tree on earth a quill
And every man a scribe by trade
To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry
Nor could the scroll contain the whole
Though stretched from sky to sky”

Did you catch that? If every tree in the world were a pen and every person in the world a scribe and every ocean in the world ink and all the sky a scroll…there still wouldn’t be enough people, paper, pens, or ink to capture and contain the love of God!

In other words…
The love of God is bigger than the Carl and Ellie’s of the world,
The young couples in love and the old couples married for 50 years.
It’s bigger than
friends and family,
puzzles and laughter,
work and play,
music and poetry,
politics and religion,
sin and judgment,
gay and straight,
black and white,
race and culture,
rich and poor,
The love of God—
“How rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure
The saints’ and angels’ song.”

I don’t know about you…but I’m so thankful for the Love of God.

Amen?
And Amen.

Help Me To Love

One thing I learned on my trip to Romania: Foreign mission trips can easily serve as a pressure cooker for a person to face all of her issues. In just one week, I found myself looking in the eye my fear of failure. I struggled with my need to feel wanted, my ugly desire to be important, my equally ugly desire to be the best, and my frustrating insecurities in being liked. I also realized something that slapped me in the face—as much as I try to love, I miss the mark every day.

The devotion book that I took to Romania was Henry Drummond’s “The Greatest Thing In The World.” I’d read the book a few years ago and was profoundly moved by its words. I find myself profoundly moved once again, and this time I am making sure to absorb every ounce of the dense text. It seems as if each paragraph that I read in Romania spoke to an issue that I was struggling with that day. I found myself in tears more than once. And from my tears—from the pressure cooker of Romania—I wrote this prayer. I pray that it will be your prayer, too, if you, too, indeed, fall short of Love.

A slap in the face.
I claim to be a person of love. Yet if
Love is patient and kind;
If it does not envy, boast, or demonstrate pride;
If it does not dishonor others or manifest as self-seeking;
If it is not easily angered and keeps no record of wrongs;
If Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth and
If it always protects, always trusts, always hopes, and always perseveres;
Then I am not truly a person of love.
God, forgive me for falling short,
For being envious and proud,
Self-centered and skeptical,
Short-tempered and long-remembering,
Condemning and judgmental,
And help me to love in Love’s fullness
From this day forward.
Amen.

Real Mashed Potatoes

It’s easy to take shortcuts.
Isn’t that what half of todays’
products and businesses are for?
Fast food.
Fast cars.
Quick cash.
Quick credit.
Disposable razors.
Disposable relationships.
Instant route recalculation.
Instant mashed potatoes.
But sometimes we want real mashed potatoes.
So sometimes we need to wash away the dirt,
Cut away the bad spots,
Feel the steam and heat, and
Taste and re-taste until we get the salt, butter, and cream just right.
It’s easy to take shortcuts.
But sometimes...
Well,
Sometimes we just need do the work for real mashed potatoes.

Angel Hair Pasta

I gave her a hand-carved antique piano key. My brother and his family gave her a nice handbag and bath salts and hosted a delicious birthday meal. My sister and her family gave her printed family portraits and Amelia made a beautiful birthday cake. But out of all of the gifts she received for her birthday this year, my mom’s favorite birthday present was a box of pot-sized angel hair pasta.

One of the dishes that my mom always makes the grandkids is spaghetti. It’s easy and all of the grandkids like it, so it has become an expected go-to every time the kids come to visit.

While some people leave their spaghetti noodles the length of the box, my mom always breaks the noodles in half so that they fit in the pot. Evidently, Amelia noticed my mom doing this the last time she was here and took note of the struggle that it can be to get the noodles evenly broken and in the pot all at the same time.

So when Amelia and her mom went shopping for birthday cake supplies last week and Amelia saw a box of pot-sized pasta for the first time, she immediately knew that she wanted to buy it for her Nana.

It doesn’t matter that we already have a box of pot-sized pasta in our cupboard. It doesn’t matter that we usually use vermicelli instead of angel hair pasta. It doesn’t matter that the gift cost no more than $2. What matters is that that box of pot-sized pasta was exactly what my mom needed to feel loved. Amelia had seen my mom, recognized her need, and sought to fill it without thinking twice.

Isn’t that we all desire? To be seen, recognized, and loved exactly where and how we are?

I doubt it’s a box of pot-sized angel hair pasta, but what is something that you have received at just the right time recently? Who is someone who has seen you and given you something priceless—whether that gift be something tangible or something we cannot see?

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Now take that gratefulness, turn it around, and find your own box of pot-sized angel hair pasta to give to someone this week. Do it for Amelia. Do it for Love.