fbpx

You Are With Me: A Meditation for the Lonely Times

You Are With Me: A Meditation for the Lonely Times

When you’re feeling lonely…

Valentine’s Day can leave us feeling lonely, no matter how well-loved we are. Today I’m sharing an excerpt from the new devotional I’m writing for people recovering from all sorts of crises. It’s called “You Are with Me.”

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil, for you are with me;

Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. Psalm 23:4, ESV

Traversing the road of recovery is not unlike walking through the valley of the shadow of death. Each journey is complex and mysterious, of uncertain length, and fraught with unknown fears. And yet, according to David, who journeyed through many dark valleys, we can “fear no evil,” because we are not alone. The Lord is closer than whispering distance, guarding and guiding us with his presence.

Imagine you find yourself in a narrow alleyway running between two high buildings in a dangerous urban area. No streetlights. No building lights. Stark starless night darkness. You can’t see the tips of your fingers, much less the end of the alleyway. It’s too late to return to the other side; before you saw what you saw, before the surgeon made the cut, before your loved one died. The recovery road has much in common with David’s valley of deep darkness.

Notice that David walks through this valley of deep darkness; he doesn’t run, even though he might be tempted to do so. Running isn’t an option when you’re recovering from disaster. Notice that David walks through this deep valley. There is no way around it; there is no turning back. The only way is to go through it, to get to the other side. Notice that David is alone in this deep darkness: “Even though I walk.” Even when we are in healthy community, we can feel isolated in recovery, as if no one else has ever walked this particular shadowland before.

How would it be possible to fear no evil in a place of such “suspense and surmise,” in which “the evil of evils is uncertainty”[i]? The answer comes in the pivot point, verse four, “For you are with me.” Earlier, David told us that the Lord, third person, is his shepherd; now he addresses the Lord directly:

“You are with me.”

You, the King of kings, are with me.

You, the lion of Judah, are with me.

You, the crusher of Satan, are with me.

Take heart, dear friends. His light, the light that has overcome the darkness, has flooded this dark valley. The Lord, your Shepherd, who counts you as his sheep by his rod, who protects and guides you with his staff, is with you.

Prayer

Lord, You are our Shepherd. We trust you to guide us, protect us, and secure us in this dark valley of deep uncertainty. Surround us with your love and mercy that we may never stray from you. Amen.

Further Encouragement

Read Psalm 23.

Listen to “God Is My Shepherd,” at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtDXHgTi-5s.

For Reflection

What dark valley are you walking through right now? What is uncertain and frightening? How does it help to know the Lord is your shepherd?

[i] Charles Spurgeon, THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH NO. 1595 https://www.spurgeongems.org/vols25-27/chs1595.pdf, 3.

Want to know when the new devotional is available? Please join Living Story subscribers to stay tuned and get free gospel centered resources.

Photo by Sasha Freemind on Unsplash

5 Verses about Whole-Hearted Living

5 Verses on Whole-Hearted Living

 

It’s Valentine’s Week, and that always makes me think about hearts and what they have to do with Valentine’s Day, and where did Valentine’s Day really come from anyway?

(If you really want to know the answer, Wikipedia of course has a great article explaining that Valentine was a religious Saint, most likely martyred for his Christian beliefs by the emperor Claudius, and that hearts probably entered the picture with good old Geoffrey Chaucer).

Mostly though, in the spirit of focusing on true love during February, I was interested in what the Bible says about the word “heart.” It is primarily attributed to humankind, and usually refers to mind, emotions, or will.

Though “whole-hearted” living is kind of in fashion right now, it actually originates with the story of shalom God wrote into our very beings. With the Fall, hearts have been broken, but God’s restoring work through Christ transforms our hearts and frees us to live our stories for his glory.

With love and gratitude to my Living Story readers, I offer you…

Ezekiel 36:26

And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

John 14:1

Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.

Psalm 73:26

My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

Romans 10:10

For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

2 Corinthians 3:2

You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all.

Get a new free gospel-centered resource every month!

A Good Read for Hard Times: The Waiting Room Devotional

What Do You Want from Christmas?

What Do You Want from Christmas?

What will you receive for Christmas?

“For to us a child is born, To us a son is given…” Isaiah 9:6
Hold on one second—before the kids start tearing into those gifts someone so lovingly wrapped with the color-coordinated ribbons and paper…before the dogs dive in to the pool of paper piled high… What do you want for Christmas? Or, no—better question, “What do you want from Christmas?”

Great Expectations

Because if there’s one thing the Bible tells us about Christmas, it’s that we should gorge ourselves on great expectations, that our longings, are not, as C.S. Lewis put it, too deep, but perhaps too shallow:
“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory
And if there were ever a time to discover how shallow our desires can be, it might just be Christmas.

Are our desires too shallow?

We give and receive scarves and shoes and gadgets and goodies to celebrate the fact that God gave us… His SON? No, make that—the life—of his Son? His Son’s life in exchange for my sins? Really? Not only that. He gave us light.
“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.” Isaiah 9:2, ESV
We are that people. We were stumbling along in fog made thick, air made dank-dark by our blearing sin. At just the right time, Jesus showed up on the doorstep of our heart, delivered by none other than God himself. Not only that. He gave us joy.
“You have multiplied the nation and increased its joy.” Isaiah 9:3, ESV
Joy is common at Christmas. Or at least lots of cheer made cheerier at times by holiday cheer. If not joy, there is holly, jolly happiness—at least, for some lucky folks, especially the ones in Hallmark movies. Joy is different. The joy God gave us seeps down deep, sends a thrill through our bones and a chill to our bumps. It’s there when we’re sitting at the hospital bed of our beloved after a devastating stroke; it’s there when our boss tells us she’s so sorry about the layoffs; it’s there when our daughter’s depression returns. It’s the solid, unshakeable belief that one day all will be well again because of the gift God gave us on Christmas day. His Son. The life of his Son for the price of our sins. Not only that. He gave us the King. Not King. The King.
“Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, On the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and uphold it with justice and righteousness from this time forth and forevermore.” Isaiah 9:7, ESV
It’s a safe bet not many Americans asked for an increase of our government for Christmas. Right now, most of us would trade our elected officials in for a Dolly Madison donut. But this—this manger-King—his government will one day terminate the strife and bitterness? This King will reign with justice and righteousness? Everything is fair, and all is right. Silent night, holy night. All is calm. All is bright. No more oppression or abuse, and all lives matter to the Prince of Peace and to his people. Yes, this will be true fully and finally, one day. We could go on like this all day, but you have gifts to unwrap. Just take one more moment with me to take in, to fully receive God’s extravagant gift, the only one you’ll get today that will satisfy your longings forever.

A Prayer about Expecting Great Things from Jesus

Gracious God, May our jaws drop in awe at the exquisite perfection of your wildly extravagant Christmas gift. Lead our eyes to stare in stunned wonder at The King you sent, once lying there in a feeding trough. Let our hearts warm as we drink in the effervescent joy of your perfect peace. In the name of our precious Manger-King we pray, Amen. Photo by Brooke Lark on Unsplash

Get your free Christmas Story Feast guide

Do you need help finding rest in Christmas?

Four-part devotional series designed to help you…Slow down. Let go…of the frenzy, worry, rush…
Hear the story of the wonders God has done—in the lives of people who also struggle with fear, anxiety and loss of hope.

FOUR WEEKLY GUIDES|FIVE DAILY ACTIVITIES 

Day 1: Devotional

Day 2: Reflection Questions

Day 3: Story Starters

Day 4: Prayer

Day 5: Music

Does Jesus Fit into Your Christmas?

Does Jesus Fit into Your Christmas?

And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. Luke 2:7

Has the Christmas rush consumed your Advent hush?

We are well into the season of Advent now. Last week, we considered the question, “How can we find REST in this holiday season?” This week, we continue our Advent exploration with this question, “Where does Jesus fit into our Christmas?”

Advent requires us to make crucial decisions…

How has the monumental moment, the birth of the Babe in the Manger, changed your world, changed your life? Or has it? That is the question Advent draws us to ask. Advent compels me, over-thinker that I am, to decide where to place the Jesus-man (the Haitian artists who crafted our Jesus depict him as a man) in the Nativity Scene.

Advent compels me to ask—where does Jesus fit in my Christmas? #Christmas #Advent Share on X

Should I put Jesus in the hay before Christmas Day?
Some people don’t. But then, why would the wise men be there? (Of course, the wise men didn’t really show up till Jesus was two years old anyway, so they probably don’t belong at all….) Ultimately, I decide to go ahead and put Jesus in the manger, partly because I’m afraid I’ll lose him otherwise, and well, even though we have the assurance of salvation, finding another man-Jesus from a Haitian Nativity set would present a challenge!

There is a more important reason, though, that Jesus goes in the manger today—he has already come to this earth. Immanuel, God-with-us has already come to us. Christ has lived. Christ has died. Christ has risen!

Where does Jesus fit in to our Christmas?

I put the man-Jesus right there in the center with his mom and dad, the shepherds and the sheep, the wise men—all those who’ve been bowled over by God’s grace. They marvel at this King of heaven, lying right there in a stinky feeding trough. It was a game-changer, this Advent event.

I put Jesus in the manger because he reminds me to wonder and wait. To wonder at the life-changing miracle of his kingdom come. To remind me in the dark, dreary days of winter or the Christmas flurry of decorations to be done, that Christ will come again.

Sometimes I wonder if we should add another figure to our Nativity Scene—of Christ returning to earth? #Christmas #Advent Share on X

Sometimes I wonder if we should add another figure to our Nativity Scene—of Christ returning to earth, or maybe it should be a whole Second Coming Scene, with zillions of angels rejoicing in heaven and rivers of life made out of Waterford crystal and a massive hand-carved tree and 24-karat gold city gates and walls…Well, maybe that’s a little much? The fact is, in that Day, we won’t need a Second Coming Scene, because we will be living right smack in the middle of it, God with us, us with God. In that day, we will live eternally, every day awed and grateful for the King who has come again for the very last time.

A Prayer about Where Jesus Fits in Our Christmas

Oh, Lord, we confess—we’ve got it all backward. Of course, the question is, “Where do we fit into Christ’s Christmas?” Forgive us for putting ourselves at the center of Christmas instead of standing with the shepherds and the wise men gazing on your glory. Help us, we pray, to cease our rushing and listen carefully for your hushing voice in this season. Help us to find our rest in Jesus. In his baby-King’s name, we ask! Amen!

FREE TO SUBSCRIBERS

Do you need help finding rest in Christmas?

Check out this four-part devotional series designed to help you…Slow down. Let go…of the frenzy, worry, rush…
Hear the story of the wonders God has done—in the lives of people who also struggle with fear, anxiety and loss of hope.

Each of the four weekly guides contains five daily activities:

Day 1: Devotional

Day 2: Reflection Questions

Day 3: Story Starters

Day 4: Prayer

Day 5: Music

Get Finding Rest in Christmas for Free

On Dining with Strangers at Thanksgiving

On Dining with Strangers at Thanksgiving

We’re all strangers.

With all of the current heartfelt discussion about welcoming “strangers” into our country, I thought I’d return to some basic facts from history — and the Bible — about this feast we call Thanksgiving! 

When my kiddos were little, the pre-schools and elementary schools always had Thanksgiving feasts. For these sweet occasions, I was often given the opportunity to create a Pilgrim costume out of paper bags (and thanks be to God for the schools who did that for us poor parents :-)!!) or an “Indian” costume (as the first Americans were called then) out of a t-shirt, some brown dye, and some scissors (and again, for all of you schoolteachers who did that for us…my eternal thanks:-)!

As pretty as that tableau was, it only resembled part of the real first Thanksgiving, according to Joanna Brooks, writing about the first pilgrims for Smithsonian Magazine. For many of the immigrants to America, life was characterized by starvation, poverty, fighting, and murder. But somehow in the midst of the mess, some of these strangers came together and made a feast. Ever-so-briefly, there was ever-so-tentative peace on earth.

Will you dine with strangers?

As Christians, God has called us to a feast of thanks-giving. Together, we recall that God redeemed and transformed broken, sinful people. Christ fed us physically, with bread and wine, and spiritually, with his body sacrificed to redeem and renew us.

In a few days, you may be sitting at table with a fractured community (or you may be NOT sitting at table because of fractured community). My Thanksgiving prayer for all of us is that we can remember that we were once far off — from God — and from one another, and that our Savior brought us near:

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. Eph. 2:13

This Savior, who broke down the dividing wall of hostility, brought us together to feast and thank God as one. For this reason, this Thanksgiving, may we accept invitations to dine with strangers — even those in our own family! As we do, may we dream of a day when the feasting will be centered around the greatest stories ever told of the goodness of the Lord. Here is some Scripture that you may enjoy reading aloud alone or together as an encouragement to celebrate with hope:

Isaiah 25: 6-10, The Message
But here on this mountain, God-of-the-Angel-Armies
will throw a feast for all the people of the world,
A feast of the finest foods, a feast with vintage wines,
a feast of seven courses, a feast lavish with gourmet desserts.
And here on this mountain, God will banish
the pall of doom hanging over all peoples,
The shadow of doom darkening all nations.
Yes, he’ll banish death forever.
And God will wipe the tears from every face.
He’ll remove every sign of disgrace
From his people, wherever they are.
Yes! God says so!
Also at that time, people will say,
“Look at what’s happened! This is our God!
We waited for him and he showed up and saved us!
This God, the one we waited for!
Let’s celebrate, sing the joys of his salvation.
God’s hand rests on this mountain!”

 

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

Get free printable prayer worksheet and cards

Memorial Day: A Soldier’s Story of Joy and Sorrow

Memorial Day: A Soldier’s Story of Joy and Sorrow

Remembering a Soldier’s Story

Today, Memorial Day, we celebrate and remember those who have died to defend our nation’s freedom. Although he did not die in defending our nation’s freedom, my grandfather, a soldier who served on a battleship before and during World War II, lost much to the war. A few years ago, my dad handed me an apple box spilling over with yellowed black and white photographs. 

“I figured you would want to know some of your grandfather’s story,” he said gruffly. You bet this story girl did want to know.

Since my granddaddy died when I was seven, I had not known him very well. I had asked my Dad about my grandfather, but most of his stories centered around battleships and World War II, not on who my grandfather was. As I leafed through the memorabilia my grandfather had collected as a young man as well as some my grandmother had added to the collection, , I learned bits of one sailor’s story, a complex tale of adventure and ambiguity. I understood my grandfather’s story better, my father’s story better, and the stories of our current soldiers and families who sacrifice to protect our nation’s freedom. Our heroes’ lives may be laced with suffering, but they are also plentiful with redemption.

From Alabama to Australia

My granddaddy grew up in Abbeville, Alabama on an old homestead. My granddaddy’s father made his money in timber but was remembered most by my dad for his remarkable capacity to sit on the porch and drink “liquid fire”. My granddaddy, whose given name was “Charley Jack Reynolds,” like many young men of that time, decided at seventeen years old to run away and see the world as a sailor in the U.S. Navy. He was good with his hands, so he became a machinist.

In the boxes, I found photo albums filled with postcards my granddaddy presumably purchased in places almost as far away from Alabama as he could be, most notably the Pacific. “Natives in Samoa” reads the caption on one; “Pre-Luau” and “Post-Luau” reads another. The Melbourne Art Museum; vast, prickly pineapple fields in Hawaii; and locks surrounding the Panama Canal tell the story of a young sailor who took in culture and keenly observed history even as he made it.

A Love Story and the Next Generation

At home on leave, my granddaddy, upon seeing his future wife acting in a play, famously vowed, “I’m going to marry that girl someday.”  A smart and perky young woman from a family that had lost everything, she worked her way through school and graduated valedictorian from Newton Normal School in Newton, Alabama. She went on to Howard College (now Samford University—she would be thrilled to know her great-grandson graduated from there!), where she trained to be a teacher.

Lala and Charley Jack had one son, my Dad, who was named Robert, after his grandfather. My Dad was given the middle name Charles—after my granddaddy, whose name my grandmother had apparently converted from “Charley Jack” to “Charles Jackson,” a more educated sounding name, a name that might suit a sailor rising in the naval ranks. (I still remember addressing letters to them as “Mr. and Mrs. Charles Jackson Reynolds,” until one day my Dad suggested that “C.J.” would be more accurate).

Happy Times and Sad

From the photos you can see that they enjoyed seasons as a happy family. There were times when both my Grandfather and my Dad smiled when their pictures were taken.

But there were also the days following Pearl Harbor when my grandmother and my father waited in darkness, huddled by a gas stove, fearing that the Japanese would bomb the base where they lived in San Pedro. In those days, naval officers came and went to neighbors’ homes, delivering dreaded news of husbands and fathers killed in the attack. After eleven days of waiting, the card arrived, carried by a mailman. The card was cryptic; the photo says it better than I could:

My granddaddy had been on a supplier ship stationed in Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. As my dad puts it, he had a “ringside seat.” Apparently, his ship sailed quickly after the attack. Just around Christmas that year, my granddaddy finally made it home for a couple of days, bringing with him a gift his buddies had purchased for my dad, who was seven at the time—a Red Ryder BB Gun. That’s what my dad remembers about Pearl Harbor. Apparently, my grandfather never spoke about it much. Apparently, he smiled less often after that.

A diabetic, my granddaddy retired in Pensacola, and my grandmother continued teaching. One day, at the relatively young age of seventy-one, as he was tending his rosebush in the back yard, he was struck down quickly by a heart attack. In a small box I found his death certificate, a list of funeral attendees, the legal announcement in the paper regarding the estate of “Charley Jack Reynolds, a.k.a, Charley J. Reynolds,” and a formal business card with the name, Charles Jackson Reynolds, Lieutenant, United States Navy. Like many soldiers, he had many names to go along with his many stories.

A Good Read for Hard Times: The Waiting Room Devotional