Not exactly a natural woman...

04/12/2012

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I think it's time I have my hair restored to its natural color.  Time to call Sara (my very talented daughter and stylist) and make an appointment.   My hair looks fine with its perfectly placed highlights .... as long as the wind doesn't blow it around.  When that happens you can see that on one side of my head I'm almost 100% gray. 

Well, that's not what I want.

So today I literally pasted my hair in place with hairspray before I left home. I could barely breathe there were so many fumes in the air.   It's ok that I did that because unless you touch my head, you can't tell my hair is pasted in place.  It ain't my mother's Aqua Net.

Just before pasting my hair in place, I spent a while getting my "face on."  It's something that is absolutely necessary so I don't scare small children.  Or little animals.    And I just feel better about myself when I do so.

When I was getting ready to go to work this morning I looked in the mirror at my appearance and with my favorite jeans and my animal print sweater,  and decided money spent on Spanx would not be a waste.    As I slipped my shoes on I decided my polish could sure use a touch up.  A pedicure???  Maybe.  

I applied my "barely there" lip color, tucked the tube in my pocket and headed off to work.

I'm 55, but really... do I have to look the part?

It's all a type of a mask.  A mask that will wash away later tonight, but a mask nonetheless.  

And we all wear them to some degree.  

We all want people to think we're something we're not.  We want to have people believe something about us that might not be, well.... accurate.  

It's why some people belong to gyms but seldom go.  They belong to clubs they cannot afford and make a point of being seen at various places at the socially acceptable time.  But it's not because it's who we are.  It's because of who we want people to believe we are.

It creates lukewarm relationships because people never get to know the real person.  

The enemy of your soul wants you to wear a mask.  He knows that hiding behind one will create pain for you.  Not ever letting people know the real you is keeping you prisoner.  

Here's some good news.  Jesus said this and it was recorded in Luke 4:18 The Spirit of the LORD is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, 

Set free.  From masks.  From having to hide the real you from others.  Jesus' desire is to have a relationship with you that removes any need for a mask of any kind.  From hiding behind the things we want people to believe about us.   He wants us to move into a relationship of honesty, trust and... dare I say it? ... wholeness.  Not having to hide anything any more.  

I'm not too likely to let my "sparkly" hair shine through any time soon or run around without makeup.  No sense in startling people.  But other masks??  Yeah, they need to come down.  

But fear not.  Jesus is crazy about you just the way you are.  







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Out of my comfort zone

03/19/2012

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This is really out of my comfort zone. 

Today, for the first time in two weeks, we filled (gulp) the car with gas.  The cost was equivalent to my first paycheck when I worked for a root beer stand when I was in high school.

Oh... you think I'm kidding.  I'm not.

Of course, when I worked as a car hop I made minimum wage.  Gas was probably somewhere around $.75 a gallon back then. 

Recently I was looking at some old pictures of my grandparents.  They owned a general store in a town of about 50 residents.  The general store also had the post office and a gas station.  Grandpa is standing in front of the gas station, proudly showing off his turf.  The sign says gas is $.15 a gallon.  At that time in history the farmers of the community were probably thinking you had to be pretty high falutin' to afford an extravagant expense like gas. 

I do remember reading somewhere that many people thought the fad of the new-fangled cars would never replace the horse and buggy.

And yet here we are.  Paying close to $75 for a single tank of gas.  I'm not feeling so high falutin' today.   People are wracking up credit card debt at an alarming speed just trying to make ends meet.

When will it all end?

Does it strike you as odd that I tell you it doesn't really matter? 

Phillippians 4:6 tells us Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. 

Talk about being out of the comfort zone.  We want to cry, beg, scream, and in general have a melt-down when things get stressful.  We want to complain, whine and moan.  Maybe if we were louder...

But we're supposed to not worry.  Pray.  About everything.  And tell (not cry, beg, etc.) God what you need.  And then... thank Him.

Really?  Thank Him for the fact that my wallet is empty when my gas tank is full?  Or thank Him that my grocery budget is screaming out of sight?  Or thank Him for the (fill in the blank with your own experiences here) _____________.

Yeah.  It doesn't make any sense to me either.  Maybe it's because God's ways are not our ways.  (Isaiah 55:8)  He wants to make sure His ways aren't easy to figure out.  That it's not something we could without Him  We need to have His help daily so we're supposed to remember to thank Him for all the help He gives.

It's really not the logical thing to do, now is it?  It's a little out of the comfort zone... a little out of the norm... to thank God for something as strange as high prices. 

Let's go back to the verse from Phillipians.  Don't worry about anything.  Tell God what you need.  And thank Him. 

He makes everything pretty easy to understand.  It just makes sense to start there...





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That woman....

02/09/2012

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You know that woman.  The one with the tainted life.  The one everyone knows, but no one wants to befriend.  Oh.... her.

Have you seen her?  She's the one sitting in the very last row of church, at least on the Sundays she has the energy to get up and go there.  She never talks to anyone.  She huddles in the corner of the pew hoping to become invisible to others.  

She's searching for .... something.  She's not quite sure what it is.  

And she waits.

The rest of the people in the church avoid her; they don't know what to say.  Everyone knows what she did, to be sure.  Instead of looking at her, they look past her.  Avoiding eye contact.

Kind of sounds like a woman in the Bible named "the sinful woman."  (Luke 7:36-50)  The men of the day didn't want to be around her, at least not religious men.  At least not in public.  

Except for Jesus.  

He told her all of her sins were forgiven and what happened next is quite a story. This sinful woman came running into a room full of men.  Without a class on biblical customs, let's just say... this action wasn't right.  It just wasn't done.

The woman dropped to her knees, poured out costly perfume on Jesus' feet and along with her tears, washed his feet and dried them with her hair.  Her hair.  

Were her tears from the joy of forgiveness or the shame of how she had lived? 
Yes.

A lot like that woman in the back of church.  

The men in the room with Jesus and the sinful woman were all taken aback.  What in the world was she doing here?  How dare she?  This was a place for the holy and upright, after all, Jesus was there.

A lot like the people in the church.

Jesus and the no longer sinful woman understood forgiveness.  Jesus now welcomed her into his presence.

The same as He does today.

The men in the room with Jesus didn't understand forgiveness the way it is meant to be understood.  They thought a black mark against you always meant a black mark against you.

The same as some think today.

But Jesus knows, and the no longer sinful woman understood, forgiveness means your slate has been wiped clean.  Not even a smudge.  Spotless.

If only the church understood that today.

We have people sitting in the back row, huddled and trying to be invisible to others.   If we only understood how Jesus removes stains we would have a better outreach to the invisible people in our churches.

And it should start today.











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First Post!

10/05/2011

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This is scary.  But then I think that is probably the very definition of "walking by faith." 

Today is my first day back "on the job" at the church.  I left another job last week because Ray and I knew it was God's leading for me to work at the church and not at a restaurant.  So... goodbye restaurant and steady paycheck... hello sitting alone in an office at the back of the church building typing a blog.  Trying to work out my feelings of fear and inadequacy to do the work of God here in Muscatine, Iowa. 

It's something new.  It's exciting.  And I can't wait to see how it all works out.




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