WHAT LENS ARE YOU LOOKING THROUGH?
Our home where we have lived for 28 years is at the end of a
half mile of dirt road which meanders through a forest of giant oaks. As I walk
that road for exercise, I am often accompanied by one of my cats who loves to
take side trips to chase a flock of quail.
Because I choose not to have a dog as a pet, the deer feel quite safe on
my property and often bring their friends for a party. As I walk by them, they
lift their heads, look straight at me and go about their grazing. Sometimes an
owl who has forgotten that he is supposed to sleep in the daytime, swoops down
to greet me. In the summertime my eyes are on the alert for snakes that are
stretched out on the road full length for sun bathing.
The first seventeen years of my life I lived alongside a
dirt road; a much longer one. I walked that dirt road to my one room
schoolhouse for three years. I was never afraid and I am not afraid now. I had
a great deal of time to think, and I have a great deal of time to think now. I
am ending my life as I began it, but there is a difference. As a young woman, I
walked alone. I knew nothing of God, Jesus or the Holy Spirit. I checked out
books (mostly novels about animals) from the town library on Saturdays and
became an avid reader. Now I am not alone for the Creator and Sustainer of the
Universe lives within me. I have time to read the Bible for myself as well as
for teaching others and I have time to read biographies of the great Christians
that my Ted and Doug are meeting right now. I am currently reading ‘Bonhoeffer:
Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy” by Eric Metasas, writer of “Amazing Grace”.
Next Friday, May 18, Doug will have been in Heaven for one
year. The Holy Spirit brings back memories of when he, Ted and I were a
threesome. …for five years. Ted and I had been married exactly ten months when
Doug arrived. We were new Christians, knew very little about how to build a
marriage and there were no classes on
relationships in the Christian schools we attended. …but we had the Holy
Spirit. Our little Doug had such a tender heart toward the Lord. As people
flowed through our lives in Minneapolis and Dallas, little Doug would ask them, “Are you a Christian?” …or he
would whisper to me, “Mommy, do you think that person knows Jesus?” That was
our little Doug. Then our lives became programmed by the churches we served,
and little Doug struggled as he viewed his world through the lens of the
church. As he grew up he began to view the church through the lens of the
world, and his heart went out to the world that was suffering with confusion,
just as he was.
You see, Ted and I had no church background so we were not
tainted by the worldliness that invades the church. As I was walking along my dirt road this week,
accompanied by critters, I was thinking
about the wonderful people God is putting In my life and my classes. Both
groups are small and that would have bothered me years ago, but I have learned
that Jesus and those who were trained by him, left the crowds and poured
themselves into a few that would understand that they are on this earth to make
the invisible Christ visible in their homes and market places. I have learned
that we are not defined by the church we attend, or even by being married or
not being married, or by the way we make our living. We are defined only by who
we are in Christ.
My lovely Wednesday women all have large networks of lost
people in their lives. I just spoke to Patricia, who lives part time in a
mansion in Malibu and sells her cosmetic products to the Rodeo crowd of women;
the rich and famous, who are bored. These are the ones the world worships.
Patricia lives part time in a tiny one-room house in the backwoods up here. She
lost her husband and parents in the same time frame not long ago. She is a
“fish out of water” in Malibu, and when she comes here everyone is busy with
their families. This time together on Wednesdays when she can get here, is a
lifeline for her.
One of the other precious ones is a masseuse and soothes the
bodies of countless people as they escape the realities of their lives for an
hour. She gave me a massage for my Mother’s day present. AHHHHHHH. Another has been a professional singer. She
went with me to Round Top, Texas last
October for a week with my dear, dear friends, Euphanel and Nick, and with
First Place for Health (I will tell you more about FP4H soon), and God has been
shifting her heart ever since to reach young
people. She will be teaching music in two schools this coming fall. A plan is
forming. …a plan that neither she nor I could have ever imagined.
…and then there is the wife of an actor/musician. She is the
daughter of pastoral parents who minister in small churches in Minnesota. She
and David have six children. The oldest is going to Russia for an internship
this summer, so yesterday I connected her with a dear missionary friend in Tel
Aviv who lived for years in Russia and can guide her to the right places and
people. Connections. Connections.
Perspective. Perspective. Think on both of these vital necessities lest you
become stagnant.
..and then there is the wife of a farmer. Together with
their family, (whom I love dearly) they
market excellent products in fairs, festivals and gatherings in cities, as well
as the local Farmer’s Market which will open soon. Albertson’s now sells their
pickles that they personally cut and can . Their network is vast. …then there
is our City Hostess who meets everyone who moves to our town. …and then my New
Zealand friend, mother of seven, who alongside her husband, has opened their
home to the throngs. Thursday night, after Bible study with the teenagers,
there must have been forty people who dropped in for supper. …or maybe more.
The Thursday class with teenagers has become a “spectator sport” for couples
and single adults who are coming to sit at Lynda and Bob’s kitchen table to
listen in. My prayer is that they will open their own homes to teenagers. Ted’s
and my home teemed with teenagers on Madrid Street in Bakersfield. Some of you
who receive this blog were part of that crowd of kids. Many of you are in
ministries around the world. These Thursday kids are either home schooled or
are in a Charter school, and they are sharp. Only one is in public school.
Jasmine and Briahanna Howells flew in
from Patrick Henry University in Virginia on Thursday morning, had had no
sleep, but got right into stride with the Bible study and the party that showed
up for dinner. Jazz wants so much to be accepted for an internshlp with World
Vision for the summer; Bri will be studying Arabic (having received a full
scholarship) at Cal State San Bernadino for part of the summer. All of these
kids are going to make a difference in this pathetic world.
Three of the Thursday kids are from the same family, are in
college on line, and come loaded for knowledge of God. I am, as you know,
coming out of a siege of emotional and physical stress so words of
encouragement such as Micah gave me slast week send my heart soaring: Her
words: “This class has changed my life!”
One of the kids is an
actor/musician and is surrounded by people who view the world from the stage. One
of the boys will be starting his own small group, developing the study himself.
Four months ago he was into drugs, alcohol and sex. He is sixteen.
Now let me tell you about a dear friend of Daughter Dee’s and
mine who is a modern day Lydia who opened up Europe to the Gospel after a
“chance meeting” with Paul and his boys alongside a river outside of Philippi
on the Sabbath. (Whew! There ought to be some way to shorten that sentence.) Karen
is a teacher in a Bakersfield High School. She has been in three high schools
that I know of and each time has left the footprints of Jesus with faculty and students. This time she
really “went for broke”. She challenged her Bible Club that meets on campus to
invite their friends to a Christian bash last Friday night. She had great kid
music and a youth director with tattoos who blew three hundred kids straight
into heaven. Five hundred students showed up! Is God through with America? It
doesn’t sound like it to me,though Satan would have us believe so.
SO, are you viewing the world through the lens of your world
or through the lens of Jesus, who left this world with this commission: “Go and
make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of te Father and the
Son and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded
you. And surely I am with you always, to
the very end of the age.” Don’t overlook
that last promise as you ask your Lord to give you eyes and heart to view the
world through the lens of the pitifully lost and frightened people all around
you.
HYMN OF THE WEEK: PRECIOUS LORD, TAKE MY HAND
Precious Lord, take my hand. Lead me on, help me stand.
I am tired, I am weak, I am worn;
Through the storm, through the night, lead me on to the Light
Take my hand, precious Lord, lead me home.
Love, Jo