Month: June 2018

It’s insurmountable. There’s no way. How am I ever going to…fix it, fight it, get through it? Have you ever faced something like that? A situation you just thought was impossible? I have.

Maybe you, or someone you know, is in the midst of a seemingly insurmountable situation right now. You look at the mountain range of problems surrounding you and feel defeated before you even try to come up with a plan to climb.

Perhaps that’s a bit how Saul and the Israelites felt when they caught sight of a Philistine named Goliath. Goliath was “a champion,” a warrior from his youth who stood an intimidating 9 feet 9 inches. It would be entirely understandable then that Saul and his army were “dismayed and terrified” (1 Samuel 17:11). I would be too.

A few verses later, an unlikely hero named David enters the scene. David’s father, Jesse, asks him to take food to his brothers who are in the battle and see how they are doing. When David complies, he gets a glimpse of Goliath and yet, he seems to be undaunted by the giant.

While conversing with his brothers, David’s oldest brother gets upset with him and calls him conceited. He also accuses him of having a wicket heart. In verse 29, David says, “Now what have I done? Can’t I even speak?” If the situation weren’t so serious, I would find it a little amusing that this appears to be yet another instance where the poor little brother can’t do anything right in his older brother’s eyes.

In the next scene, Saul sends for David and David tells him that he will go and fight Goliath. Saul, however, is not so keen on the idea. In fact, Saul tells David he is not able to do that. After all, David is only a young man and Goliath is well…Goliath. (v. 31-33).

Has that ever happened to you? Have you ever offered to tackle a huge problem and been shut down immediately? It can be incredibly discouraging, especially when you KNOW you can do it.

David doesn’t let Saul’s response stop him. David goes on to make a case for why he can handle Goliath. He tells Saul that while shepherding and protecting sheep, he killed both the lion and the bear. He also credits the Lord for rescuing him from the vicious animals and says that He would do it again if David were to fight Goliath.

Saul finally relents and says to David, “Go, and the Lord be with you.”

In order to help David be as prepared and protected as possible, Saul gives him his armor. However, David wasn’t used to wearing it and it just wouldn’t work for him.

Has some well-intentioned person ever tried to give you tools that they thought would help you handle a problem, but they just weren’t what you needed? They just weren’t tools with which you were familiar and you knew they wouldn’t work.

David already had a plan and it was a simple one. He just needed his sling and a handful of smooth stones from the stream. Once he had the tools he was familiar with, he began to approach Goliath.

Goliath approached David and despised him. The tension was mounting.

What I love about what we read next is that David wasn’t just armed with his simple weapon. He was armed with something much more powerful.

“David said to the Philistine, ‘You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands…”. (v. 45)

The name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel. Now THAT is a weapon.

Sometimes, when tackling a huge situation, we try to use conventional tactics instead of spiritual ones. We have to remember that we might have tools or “weapons” we think will work but ultimately, we would be foolish to leave the Lord Almighty out of the situation.

The passage goes on to say, “…and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel.” (v. 47). “All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves…”

There was a much bigger picture than just eliminating an enemy. God wanted people to know Him. He still wants that today.

What would it look like in our lives to allow the Lord Almighty to help us tackle a seemingly insurmountable situation? Sure, we could use the talents and tools (weapons) He’s given us, but like David, what if we also credited God for doing the saving? Would that give others a better view of God? Would it help them know Him?

Psalm 33:16 says, “No king is saved by the size of his army; no warrior escapes by his great strength.” It is the Lord who delivers.

And that is exactly what He did. As Goliath moved closer to attack, David ran quickly to the battle line, took out a stone, slung it and struck Goliath.

It was an impossible situation. But nothing is impossible for God.

Are you facing a “Goliath” right now? Something impossible?

Don’t be discouraged by nay-sayers. Don’t let others tell you that you are too ______ (nice, young, fill in the blank) to handle it.

Be encouraged! Remember that it’s not about the sword or the spear. It’s not about your strength or the size of the problem. It’s about the Lord Almighty. Trust that it is He who delivers.

Are you ever surprised by who or what God uses to speak to you? I know I am.

One time, I took the day off of work and drove to the Huntington Library in Pasadena, CA. I wanted a solitude day — a little extra time with God.

I was sitting outside in a lush, grassy area, right in front of a little pond. My Bible and my journal were next to me. Suddenly a little humming bird fluttered in and hovered right in front of me over the water. Then, just as quickly as he flew in, he flew out. He did this about three times before I had a bit of a revelation.

As I thought about the brief little visits my new little friend was making, I had to ask myself if that’s how I had been interacting with God. Was I just fluttering quickly into His presence, saying a quick prayer at breakfast and then going about my day? Did I then thank Him for my lunch and leave His presence again? I felt like that’s exactly what I had been doing and He used a humming bird, of all things, to show me that.

Most recently, God has been using my children to speak to me.

My 3-year-old is going through a phase where he will ask me things repeatedly without giving me sufficient time to answer. (I am choosing to believe this is a phase and will not continue for years to come). Since becoming a mommy, my verbal response time has decreased dramatically. I’m sure it has nothing to do with age. Lol.

Finally, one day I said to him, “just because I don’t answer you right away doesn’t mean I didn’t hear you.” As soon as the words left my mouth, I felt like God was speaking them to me. What a good reminder that God always hears me, even if I feel like He’s taking too long to answer, and I need to be patient (just as I want my 3-year-old to be).

There was another time recently when my 3-year-old and I were playing with Mega Blocks, which are like big Legos, and he couldn’t find the specific block he was looking for. I tried to encourage him to find another one but he was dead set on finding the exact one he wanted.

He was starting to get upset and I could tell the meltdown was only moments away. In an effort to help, I said, “honey, you can be upset about what you don’t have or you can work with what you do have.” There were at least 100 other blocks he could have chosen. Immediately, I felt like God wanted me to hear those words, not just my 3-year-old.

“Suzie, you can be upset about what you don’t have right now, or you can use what I have already given you.”

I’ve been thinking about my kids more lately. Maybe because it’s summertime and I feel like we’re spending more time together, even though I’m a stay-at-home-mom (SAHM) so I already spend quite a deal of time with them. It just seems like we’re doing more activities together right now because of the warm summer weather.

Being a SAHM is by far the most challenging job I’ve ever had. I’m grateful for the opportunity, but let’s just say it keeps me on my toes.

One of the ways I try to stay radiant while being a SAHM, and retain my sanity, is by coming up with fun activities for the kids to do.

We recently made water balloons part of our father’s day festivities and, weather permitting, it might just become a tradition. We filled up 20 of them at a time, (by the way, whoever invented the ones that you can fill up in mass numbers like that is a genius!) grabbed as many as we could hold and while laughing and giggling, ran around the backyard throwing them at one another. It was so much fun!

On nice days, we also like to go for a walk around the block or in the neighborhood. My three-year-old gets out his trusty spray bottle and I bring along a bubble wand. As we walk, I use the bubble wand to make bubbles which then become a target for my three-year-old to shoot at with his spray bottle. He twists the nozzle so that the spray is more of a stream. Then he yells and shouts with glee every time he pops a bubble.

Another thing that keeps my 3-year-old occupied is peeling hard boiled eggs. Who would have thought? He loves to sit at the table and peel the eggs and then after I rinse them, he’ll eat one. It’s a win-win. I don’t have to do it and he’s entertained for 20 minutes and he gets something healthy to eat. Maybe it’s a win-win-win!

One thing both of my kids have enjoyed playing with is the salad spinner. Who needs toys, right? I’ll set it on the floor and they’ll put in the brightly colored magnetic letters from the fridge and spin it around, watching all the colors blur together.

My littlest guy likes to take the salad spinner apart since it comes in three pieces. I think he’s a little engineer in the making.

I also just saw an idea where you can put a coffee filter in the bottom of the salad spinner and use a few drops of washable paint (not too thick) and then put the lid on and spin it around. You end up with a little piece of spin art you can hang up to dry. Though I haven’t tried it yet, I think it would be fun to do with the kids.

All of these things have kept my little guys entertained for virtually zero of the dollars since I already had them around the house.

I would love to hear about the activities you do with your little ones.

I would also love to hear the ways God tends to speak to you. Please share in the comments below.

I hope you are having a wonderful summer. Let us go be radiant this week!

“People don’t follow vision; they follow availability.” Bob Goff

Do you think that’s true? I wasn’t sure at first because in my experience, the vision of a company, an organization or even a church, has always been a really big deal. It is akin to DNA.

But what if availability is more valuable to some than vision? Is it more valuable to you?

Bob Goff goes on to say in his book, Everybody Always, “I don’t send people to voice mail anymore. Try it for a week. Loving people the way Jesus did means living a life filled with constant interruptions.” To really bring the point home, he then says, “Be excessively available, and you’ll be just like Jesus.”

Interruptions. That word creates inner turmoil for me. I’m a total people person…who is also very task-oriented. When I’m in the middle of a task, I want to have the ability to focus on it and finish it. When I’m with people, enjoying a conversation, I want to continue to chat, interruption free.

Years ago, I read somewhere that “interruptions are the ministry.” I’m thinking it might have been in a Henry Nowen book, but I’m not certain. When I read it, I immediately assented to it. I could be studying my Bible in preparation for a talk I’m going to give and think that’s the ministry, but if someone walks in the room and needs me, what’s the “ministry” at that point? Is my vision for my life or even my talk more important than my availability to that individual at that moment? I don’t think so.

Jesus understood the interruptions. The disciples however, well…they didn’t always have the same amount of understanding or compassion for that matter.

Remember the feeding of the 5,000 in Matthew 14? The disciples wanted Jesus to send the crowds away so that they could go buy food. But Jesus said to the disciples, “you give them something to eat.” Jesus wasn’t ready for the crowds to leave yet. There were still some things that needed to be taught, like His amazing miracle of provision.

On another occasion, Jesus was approached by a Canaanite woman who wanted Jesus’ help (Matthew 15). At first, Jesus didn’t say anything in response to her request. Some might say it was to test her faith because she persisted. In fact, she continued to cry out after him, so much so that the disciples begged Jesus to send her way. Based on the way they asked, it implies that they wanted her sent away with her request granted, but nonetheless, they wanted her away from them.

“They were moved not so much by pity as by dread of a sensation. There was far more sympathy (though hidden) in Christ’s heart than theirs.” (Westcott and Hort). It seems as though they just wanted her to stop nagging them. Ironically, Jesus commended her great faith and at other times pointed out their lack of faith.

Later, in Matthew 19, the disciples do it again. People are bringing their little children (possibly infants) to Jesus and the disciples rebuke them! In my mind, that’s the same as saying, “go away!” And yet, these people were seeking Jesus’ blessing for their children! How sad that the disciples didn’t recognize this “interruption” as the ministry.

Jesus made Himself available to these little ones because “the kingdom of heaven belongs to them.” He was available to them because they mattered. Because He cared. Because He loved them and the ones who brought them.

While I can sit here and point out the error of the disciples’ tendency to want to send people away, am I guilty of doing the same thing? Am I guilty of not recognizing the importance of the people around me or the attention they deserve?

I agree with Bob Goff. If I want to love people the way Jesus did, then I need to make myself more available. It’s not always or only about vision. Availability goes a long way in a relationship and speaks volumes when it comes to love.

Have you heard of Bob Goff? He spoke at a conference I attended a few years ago and I was so inspired by the way he loves others, that I bought his book, Love Does.  When I discovered he had just released another book, Everybody Always, Becoming Love in a World Full of Setbacks and Difficult People, I snatched it up as quickly as I could.

I’m half-way through the book as I write this post and I cannot even begin to tell you how soul-nourishing it has been.

The chapter that I have enjoyed the most thus far is called, “Three Green Lights”. Goff shares that on one occasion after a speaking engagement, he landed his own plane at an airport, soon followed the landing of an F-16, flown by two Top Gun fighter pilots.

Goff struck up a conversation with them and discovered they had just been flying through the nearby valleys in California to sharpen their flying skills, reaction time and even their teamwork. Goff, on the other hand, had purposefully flown over the mountain tops because he wanted to be safe. The pilots “…flew through the valleys because they wanted to get better.”

Being ever mindful of the spiritual analogy, Goff makes a poignant parallel, “What I’ve come to learn so far about my faith is Jesus never asked anyone to play it safe. We were born to be brave. There’s a difference between playing it safe and being safe.”

Like Bob, I would totally be the one flying the plane above the mountain tops instead of through the valleys in an effort to be safe. Unfortunately, that often carries over into my walk with Jesus too. When is the last time I’ve intentionally flown through a valley to sharpen my skills?

Goff goes on to say, “A lot of people think playing it safe and waiting for all the answers before they move forward is the opposite of dangerous. I disagree. If our life and our identity are found in Jesus, I think we can redefine safe as staying close to Him.” I love the idea of redefining “safe,” because we too often define it in terms of excessive cautiousness or our own well being instead of taking a step of faith and remembering we are doing so with Jesus at our side. There is no better place to be than close to Him.

When it comes to relationships and loving people who are difficult to love, we might prefer to take the mountain top route, when in fact God might be asking us to go a little deeper into the valleys. It can feel riskier, but it sure can provide an opportunity for growth and dependence on God, don’t you think?

To further bring the point home, Goff elaborates, “People who are becoming love understand God guides us into uncomfortable places because He knows most of us are too afraid to seek them out ourselves.” I completely relate. I would choose comfort any day. My tendency is to gravitate toward friendly, likeable people. I see a warm smile and I gladly smile right back. I see a grimace or a frown and I look the other way and go about my day.

Thankfully, God is my Pilot (which I talked about a little in my post, Why I like Turbulence) and He guides me where He wants me to go. The challenge for me is to then actually do what He wants me to do…like loving unlovely people.

Another point Goff makes in this chapter is that we don’t always need to have all the answers before we move forward. He tells a story about when he was preparing to land his plane and only got two, instead of three, green lights for the landing gear. Two of the green lights indicated his rear landing gear was down, but the light for the front wheel was not lit up. After flying past the tower twice, they still couldn’t determine if his front wheel was down. Should he try to land the plane even though he didn’t know if he had his front landing gear down?

Goff likens his scary plane situation with situations we face in our own lives. We are expecting something to happen and it doesn’t. We want more clarity and we don’t get it. We wait for more information and it simply doesn’t materialize. We don’t have all the green lights we want. “It’s easy to forget that our faith, life, and experiences are all the green lights we need,” says Goff.

“Don’t ignore the green lights you already have. What delights you? What fires your imagination? What fills you with a deep sense of meaning and purpose? What draws you closer to God? What is going to last in your life and I the lives of others?” What great questions! If you are in a place of contemplating your future, wondering if you should do something you’ve been dreaming about, or just need a change, these questions might be helpful navigational tools.

Goff encourages readers to act quickly, regardless of the number of green lights you have. Opportunities don’t often last long. In his case, the fuel in his plane was not going to last long. He needed to land it, even if he had no landing gear down in the front of the plane.

He didn’t know if the wheels on the plane would work, but he did know God was with him. He brought the plane down slowly, lifting the nose as high as he could. The rear wheels touched first and then he felt a small bounce, telling him the front wheel was down! Phew! It had only been a light bulb issue, not a landing gear issue.

The moral of the story is, “Don’t let a nickel light bulb keep you from fulfilling your purpose. God isn’t surprised we want more confirmation. He just hopes we won’t get stuck waiting for it.”

As I think about my quest to be radiant, I’m asking myself, “is there something I’m waiting to do (that God wants me to do now) because I’m hoping for more green lights?” I’m also asking myself if there are any “valleys” I need to fly through.

Let’s go be radiant this week!

When I was growing up, there were times when my family and I had to choose a new carpet color or a car color or something along those lines. I remember my mom saying, “I just want a color that won’t show the dirt.” Now, from a practical standpoint, I understand that, although I have always wondered how you know where it needs to be cleaned.

I have a theory that how we think about everyday things (like choosing a color that won’t show the dirt), transfers over to how we think about spiritual things too. For example, one might tend to view God in a similar fashion to how she views her dad. So while we might tend to want to hide the visibility of dirt in our flooring, we shouldn’t necessarily be hiding it when it comes to our spiritual lives.

Over the years, I’ve had a couple of people say to me, “Suzie, you’re just too perfect.” I was completely astounded. “Have we met? Do you know me?” I am far from perfect. But in retrospect, I realized the reason they thought that is because I probably hadn’t been transparent enough with them. I hadn’t been vulnerable enough to show them the “dirt” in my life — the times I had made mistakes, sinned, let people down.

As I was studying this idea in Scripture, I couldn’t help but go to 1 John, which talks all about light. 1 John 1: 5-8 says, “God is light. In him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.”

Verse 9, which is a great one to memorize, goes on to say, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

I appreciate the sharp contrast in this text between the light and the darkness. First of all, John is very emphatic that there is no darkness in God, at all. Clearly light and darkness do not co-exist in Him.

When we think of light, we see it as something that shines in the darkness, exposing it. Isn’t that what we want? If we have sin in our lives and we can’t see it, we need God, who is not “a light” or “the light,” but “light itself,” according to Barnes’ Notes on the Bible, to shine on it so we can identify it and He can cleanse us from it.

MacLaren notes that, “In all languages, light is the natural symbol for three things: knowledge, joy and purity.” What a powerful statement. In contrast, when we are in the dark or as the text says, “walking in the darkness,” we can’t see anything clearly. We are blinded by it.

In our Christian life, we don’t want to be surrounded by darkness, we want to be living in the light and growing in our relationship with God. “As all material life and growth depends on light, so all spiritual life and growth depends on God.” (Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary). I think one way that we can grow spiritually is to eliminate sin in our lives.

As I thought about these things, I felt motivated to want God to shine His light on any “dirt” so that it can be exposed and cleansed. I believe that will help not only in our relationship with God, but also in our relationship with others.

Brene Brown is one of today’s leading experts on the topic of vulnerability and she says, “Staying vulnerable is a risk we have to take if we want to experience connection.” I couldn’t agree more. The more vulnerable we are with others, the deeper the connection we can have with them. When we show the dirt, we actually allow ourselves to be relatable to others. It helps others identify with us and what we are going through. 

Something I learned in my last job is that I tend to underreport the negative or minimize how bad things really are. I’m not intentionally trying to be deceptive, it’s more that I generally tend to look at things optimistically and I have faith that I’ll get through whatever it is I’m experiencing. However, I know that it’s an area where I need to grow.

Sometimes, as Christians, we can kind of put on a face that everything is okay, when it’s really not. I think we need to get comfortable with the idea that it’s perfectly acceptable for things not to be okay sometimes. That’s where the honesty and vulnerability come in. But I believe there is safety in that, when God is the One shining His light on the situation.

So, the challenge for myself and us this week is to think about how we can “show the dirt” in our lives to trusted people around us and be a little more vulnerable as we depend on God, our Light.