Life in the S-L-O-W lane

There is a movie entitled Nell. I have not seen it but it I understand that it is about a young lady who grows up alone in the forest. She knows nothing of electricity or plumbing or any other modern convenience. One day the world beyond the forest discovers her.

She is taken out of the forest by well-meaning people who think she should catch up with the rest of the world so she can lead a fuller life. Her fate is in the hands of 12 jurors. After the lawyers speak, Nell gets up to speak for herself.

“You have big things.”

“You know big things.”

“But you don’t look into each others eyes.”

“You are hungry for quietness.”

“I have lived a small life.”

“And I know small things.”

Nell looks into the eyes of the judge and those of the courtroom. She wants to help them understand.

“The quiet of the forest is full of angels—“

“In the daytime there comes beauty.”

“In the nighttime, there comes happiness.”

“Don’t be afraid for Nell”

“Don’t weep for Nell.”

“I have no greater sorrows than yours.”

In the backwoods with her bare feet and broken speech, Nell lived a small life, knowing only small things. She knew nothing of stock prices or cellular phones, nothing of the state of the union of the scandals of its leaders, nothing of the mysteries of the universe or the miracles of modern science. Yet, her nights were filled with happiness, her days with beauty, and she sensed something of the divine in the world around her. (From the book Seeing What is Sacred, pages 1-3).

This noisy, busy and fast paced culture keeps us speeding by the moments when we might hear and see God. There is always one more thing to accomplish. If we don’t do it we feel like we have failed. We want our children to be involved in every sport and every club so that they might have a well balanced life. We drag ourselves from one task, one moment of time to another but we end the day tired, weary and exhausted. Life goes by, children grow up, we age and the world changes but deep down inside we know that we have missed something very important.

Life is not about participating in every opportunity that comes our way. It is not about experiencing the thrill of each event. Life is about relationships. Life is truly lived when we block out time to sit and listen to each other AND to God. Life is lived from the inside out – from the heart and spirit. We must learn, before it is too late, to enter into the world of our children, our friends, our co-workers and even God Himself. Once there we will discover the beauty of the world, the beauty of its Creator and the joy of relationships that are worth more than any amount of gold.

Will you live life in the slow lane and listen to God’s world around you?

Splinters and Glass Doors

It is interesting how God uses things in our lives to speak to us about our relationship with Him.

Have you ever had those moments when you wondered what God was up to? You had prayed, sought his guidance, read the Word and understood what he was asking of you. You took off only to run your nose into the glass door like the man in the Windex commercial. You recollect yourself, consider another direction and WHAM! Another glass door.

This has happened to me. Recently I received bumps on my head from running into those glass doors. Questions begin to pile up. “What did I miss?” “What is God asking me to do?” “Where is God taking me?” “God, please speak clearer.” And off I go – WHAM!

This last Saturday I was working pulling some dead plants out of our garden. Running my hand down into the dirt I stuck it on a thorn of some kind. A piece got caught in my thumb. The rest of the day I could feel the small bump there from the splinter. That night I took a needle and tried to remove it. It was buried deep and if felt like it was rubbing up against a nerve. I could not remove it. The next morning the thumb was somewhat swollen. I lanced it again and the splinter came out!

That morning we had a prayer service at our church. I again was seeking God and questioning Him. He spoke to me about my splinter. He has been digging around in my heart and spirit working at removing the “splinters” that were stuck there by life. There were splinters of guilt, anger, betrayal and other emotions that were wedged in my life. He was working to remove them, because these were leading me to run into the glass doors and not see the right way to go. There is some residual pain that remains from their removal but that will completely be gone soon. And so it is with our lives. God will work to remove the splinters in our souls so that we are not injured by them any more. It may hurt for a time, but the real healing will follow. We will not be bothered by them again.

What “splinters” is God working at removing from your life? Where are you running into your glass doors and feeling a little confused? God is there in the middle of it all.

Prayer Blessings

A voyaging ship was wrecked during a storm at sea and only two of the men on it were able to swim to a small, desert like island. The two survivors, not knowing what else to do, agree that they had no other recourse but to pray to God.

However, to find out whose prayer was more powerful, they agreed to divide the territory between them and stay on opposite sides of the island.

The first thing the first man prayed for was food. The next morning, the first man saw a fruit-bearing tree on his side of the land, and he was able to eat its fruit. The other man's parcel of land remained barren.

After a week, the first man was lonely and he decided to pray for a wife. The next day, another ship was wrecked, and the only survivor was a woman who swam to his side of the land. On the other side of the island, there was nothing.

Soon the first man prayed for a house, clothes, more food. The next day, like magic, all of these were given to him. However, the second man still had nothing.

Finally, the first man prayed for a ship, so that his wife and he could leave the island. In the morning, he found a ship docked at his side of the island. The first man boarded the ship with his wife and decided to leave the second man on the island. He considered the other man unworthy to receive God's blessings, since none of his prayers had been answered.

As the ship was about to leave, the first man heard a voice from Heaven booming, "Why are you leaving your companion on the island?"

"My blessings are mine alone, since I was the one who prayed for them," the first man answered. "His prayers were all unanswered, and so he does not deserve anything."

"You are mistaken!" the voice rebuked him. "He had only one prayer, which I answered. If not for that, you would not have received any of my blessings."

"Tell me," the first man asked the voice, "what did he pray for that I should owe him anything?"

"He prayed that all your prayers be answered."

For all we know, our blessings are not the fruits of our prayers alone, but those of another praying for us.