Month: June 2023

TURNNING POINTS

On Wednesday, June 21, we in the Northern Hemisphere observed the summer solstice, the longest day of the year.  On this day the sun’s rays strike the Earth’s surface at a more direct angle in the Northern Hemisphere than they do in the Southern Hemisphere.  After the solstice, we begin to lose about a minute of daylight per day until the winter solstice occurs and days begin to lengthen again.  The summer solstice is a day of relief for me because I like knowing that the days are getting shorter, even though this decrease in daylight will not be appreciable for some time.  It is just a small comfort to me.

I realize that I am probably in the minority when I say that summer is my least favorite season.  If you know me then you know that fall is my favorite followed closely by winter.  I love the day we go off daylight savings because there is a big jump to longer nights.  There is something I love about being snuggled in a cozy room, maybe with a fire going, while the wind howls in the dark outside.  I can’t say that I love being cold, but I really hate being hot.  At least in the winter I can add more clothes or wrap up in a blanket.  

Although it may be meteorologically incorrect, I think about the summer solstice in this way.  God, who created the sun, knows just how much of it we can take.  It is like He is saying, “ This is the turning point.  If I give the earth more days of sun, it would burn up.”  Even though summer is just beginning, and we in Tulsa, Oklahoma have sweltering days ahead, they won’t last forever.  Fall will come, followed by winter.  In our family, we set our beginning of fall by our granddaughter Hannah’s birthday, which is September 20.  Her mother, our daughter, will tell you when she went into the hospital to deliver Hannah it was summer, and when she came out it was fall.

Just as God knows how much heat (or cold) we can take, He also knows how much stress we can take.  I had a pastor once who said that every trial has a beginning and an end.  I am wondering if there is also a midpoint, a place where God turns the trial toward a conclusion.  You may be thinking about a trial that ends in death and there seems to be no turning point, no time of relief.  But maybe there is and it just goes unnoticed.  Perhaps in these struggles that end in death, there is a point where the soul turns toward home.  That moment when God calls us to Himself.  “You have had enough of this world.  Now come to rest in me.”

But most of our trials do not end in death.  Isn’t it a comfort to know that even though we may not be able to see it, our ordeal may be coming to an end?  When we think we can’t go another mile or endure another day, we dig in and press on.  We take comfort in the knowledge that Jesus is walking with us through our valleys and He knows when to turn things around.  And while we are enduring, God is chiseling away, sculpting Christ-like character into us (Rom. 5:4).  If you are going through a valley right now, take heart.  Be encouraged by the words to this beautiful song by Selah:

When the valley is deep
When the mountain is steep
When the body is weary
When we stumble and fall

When the choices are hard
When we’re battered and scarred
When we’ve spent our resources
When we’ve given our all

In Jesus’ name, we press on
In Jesus’ name, we press on
Dear Lord, with the prize
Clear before our eyes
We find the strength to press on

Dear Lord, with the prize
Clear before our eyes
We find the strength to press on

In Jesus’ name, we press on
In Jesus’ name, we press on
Dear Lord, with the prize
Clear before our eyes
We find the strength to press on

We find the strength to press on
To press on

Source: Musixmatch

Songwriters: Daniel L. Burgess

Press On lyrics © Wb Music Corp.

 https://youtu.be/AKJ6dmKV0Gc

You’re Not Listening!

I remember as a mother of young children sometimes it was difficult to get their attention.  “Listen to my words,” I would say.  As a mother, I was always talking, teaching, admonishing, and training them with an ongoing dislogue. But for those important moments, I would pause and make sure they were listening.  With three girls (and I made 4), it was hard to get a sentence in.  In our family we come from a long line of very verbal women.  We say we have the Peterson gift of gab.  My grandmother and her sisters were all Petersons by birth, and they all could talk circles around anyone else who wanted to speak.  

My poor husband didn’t have much of a chance to speak with all these girls.  But then, men don’t use as many words as women.  Accordinng to studies (and who is counting all these words?), women speak about 20,000 words a day compared to 7000 for men.  Getting a man to listen, at least at my house, requires reeling him back in from wherever he mentally goes.  “Jerry, I need to tell you something.”  

We have been facilitating a study at our church for couples, and this phenomenon of checking out has been the subject some humorous connversations.  We decided that men have a nothing box where theygo to tune out. 

Me: “What are you thinking about?”

Him: “Nothing.”

How is that possible?  I, like most other women, start thinking before my feet ever hit the floor in the morning.  But men swear that they can empty their minds and not be thinking about anything.  That is why it is necessary to get their attention before speaking to them about something important.

I have said before that my word for 2023 is quiet.  As a part of cultivating quiet, I am trying to listen more.  Listen intentially.  I was reading about listening earlier this week in a book called The Sacred Slow.  The author, Alicia Britt Chole, asserts that not listening is a form of idolatry.  Over and over in the Bible, God admonished his people to listen to his words.  And their were consequences when  they refused to listen. He finally sent them into exile, a 70 year time out.

The word listen is translated form the Hebrew word, shama.  It appears 1161 times in Scripture.  Evidently God thinks listening is important.  But this kind of listening is more than just hearing a sound.  It requires us to come out of our boxes and pay close attention.  To be able to do this, I must say no to some things.  We tend to want God to add the discipline of listening to our already crowded minds.  But God is calling us to purge some things and to fast from others, in order to hear His voice.  Even Jesus had to get away by Himself.  Sometimes God has to lead us into the wilderness to get our attention.

So I am working on slowing down and being quieter, disciplines that do not come easily to this Peterson descendant. I would prefer to do these things voluntarily rather than get a heavenly time out.  

Lord, give me ears to listen and feet to obey.