Stepping it Up a Notch at 60

 “So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. Return, O Lord, how long? and let it repent thee concerning thy servants. O satisfy us early with thy mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.” (Psalm 90:12-14) 

While we are eternal beings in an ultimately real sense, we are also mortals while on this earth. The Psalmist tells us to “number our days” that we might gain perspective of how short earthly life is compared to eternity, and how imperative it is that our earthly sojourn count much for the eternal kingdom of God.

 A couple of us at Women of the Word are turning 60 this year! With that comes a soberness of heart that causes us to turn to the Lord, and implore Him to use us as He wills. There can be nothing held back from Him in this hour. As our bodies age, our spirit can burn every more brightly because we identify with our Lord and understand His purposes and ways in an even greater way. The desire and pursuits of earlier decades give way to increasingly wholehearted and unreserved abandon to our God and His passionate work to win all peoples to Himself.

 There are some things that can not be completely done when we are young because we do not yet have the experience. Maturity in God happens over the course of decades-- line upon line of faithful walking with God, day in and day out, through the many storms of life. While youth has energy, the seasoned have come to know that of themselves, they can do nothing and their self-trust has given way to trust in God alone, or at least a deeper understanding of that. There are no shortcuts to some things. Knowing where you end, and where God begins is a great wisdom.

 Paul writes, “Moreover [let us also be full of joy now!] let us exult and triumph in our troubles and rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that pressure and affliction and hardship produce patient and unswerving endurance. 4 And endurance develops maturity of character (approved faith and tried integrity). And character produces joyful and confident hope of eternal salvation. Such hope never disappoints or deludes or shames us, for God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit Who has been given to us. While we were yet in weakness [powerless to help ourselves], at the fitting time Christ died for us in our ungodly condition Romans 5:3-6 Amplified).

By the time we turn 60, our character is soberingly starting to show itself for what it is. Now is our wake-up call to be awake, and surrendered, and fit for the Master’s use. For if not now, when? If we have not taken the claims of Jesus upon our life seriously, we had best get down on our knees. And if we have, there are always deeper, more wonderful depths to plumb.

I feel that I am only getting to the starting line and I have endeavored to run the race with sobriety for these many decades! God views our life from the finish point. He stands at our finish line and beckons us to run well, run with abandon, run with character, run with grace. So let us do that, with all our mind, heart, soul and strength. There is no time to lose, and no time like the present to press into God.

Travel Light

I have a beautiful Border Collie that has come to stay with me, most likely permanently.
Her name is Precious, and so she is! Gentle, sweet, loving and intense as Border
Collie's can be. She came to me with literally nothing--no possessions.  As always, I am
learning a lot from her.  Border Collies like to herd, as I am finding out. As she has
begun to amass possessions with the proclivity of a raven--a stuffed toy, various bones,
 a ball, a hard piece of bread, her dog bowl, she herds them all into her bed. Then she lays
 down on them so she can make sure they are "safe."   Sometimes when I call her and
she won't come its because she is "on guard duty" on her bed.  She counts all the items,
I think, because I have taken things from her bed when she is not looking and then I
soon find the item back in her bed.

All of this reminds me very much of how we, as humans, can relate to our possessions.
We start out with our birthday suit and pretty soon we can't get out of our bed, even
when the Master calls, because we are "watching our stuff."

Sometimes I put food in the bowl in her bed. and then I go back and gently pretend that
I am going to take it back. She is very good--she would not growl at  me or refuse me the
right to take it back, but she does a good job at herding me off in another direction--
the old "hey, look over there" trick. She does let me take the food back, but
it creates anxiety in her. Hmm...now do you or I get like that when God touches our stuff?

We know all our things belongs to Him, we know we are His, and all that we have
came to us from Him. We came with nothing, but now we get nervous if He starts to
"touch" our "stuff." Perhaps we had less when we had no worldy possessions, but then
we get them and anxiety about taking care of them fills our minds. And this does not just
apply to physical items but to the very essence of our lives--we guard our lives, and the more
vigilant a personality we are, the more we guard it.    Border Collies are not slackers,
they are type A personalitie--they are on the job 24/7.  But that trait can work against
them when they are put in charge of minding things--because they don't know when
to stop and call it a day. They don't know when to go home and  go to bed because
even in their bed they have to guard! Yikes!

All I can tell you is that there is a big lesson in all this: If you are the Lord's Border Collie,
give all your items back to Him. Travel light, my friend.  

Launch Out Into the Deep

Now when He had ceased speaking, he said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a catch. (Luke 5:4)


photo taken in Breakwater Lighthouse at Rockland, Maine

Ignoring the Caution Tape

The last hurricane brought a tree limb down to rest on our power and utility lines. Thankfully, they did not
break under the weight, but they did slowly, inch by inch, take out our neighbor's cable and phone lines.
Despite a predicted long wait, the electric crew came quite rapidly : all seven of them and 4
trucks! They taped off the whole area, including over an adjacent  public sidewalk, with yellow
caution tape. They put yellow tape on the downed cable and phone lines. They cut off the offending
limb and drove off leaving my front yard looking like a war zone of  tree carnage.

Over the next few days we had a lot of lookers, and people passing by  made a wide path around
"whatever happened in that yard."  I learned a lot about people in my neighborhood.
Well, its hard to tell exactly what is now fixed as there is still one line down, kind
of hanging limply across the sidewalk. I suspect its an old fashioned telephone landline and
since these days that is kind of antiquated technology,  maybe its just not necessary for our
neighbors to get it fixed. I don't know.

What I want to write about is the caution tape. At first, people really obeyed it, and
walked onto the street to avoid the area. But between this and that,
part of the tape kind of lost it's way, and with it, lost it's authority, and I noticed that
people started to just walk under the downed line, the first time a little gingerly,
and then, with a "whatever" attitude as they walked down the street with their
DD coffee or cell phone or dog or what have you. I now do it myself.

The scary lesson is this: Is this how moral conscience gets hardened?
Is this how we become deaf to the leading of the Spirit? Is this how we
enter into dangerous or temptation laden situations when we know that God
has roped them off  for good reason?

At first we steer clear, then it becomes too much work to walk around
them, then we lose our fear, then we think we are safe and can handle
it when maybe the wire is still live and we are not safe at all. And maybe
we haven't radically cut off the offending limb that started the whole
situation, as Jesus told us to do, in  order to make it into the Kingdom,
even if we limp in?. (Mark 9::43)

Who are we to judge whether we can ignore what has been
already deemed as someplace to tread carefully? A phone line can
still give a small jolt but an overhead suburban power line can fry me
a thousand times over. I can't really tell the difference because
I'm not trained in that area. So are you willing to take a
chance based on your level of spiritual knowledge? That
would be about like playing Russian Roulette with your soul.
 "If I have spoken to you of earthly things and you didn't get it, then how
can I speak of heavenly ones?" Jesus said to Nicodemus,
(of whom He thought should have known better.) (John 3:12).

God has given us the Holy Spirit to warn us, to guide is
in the safe way, to show us when to "go home by another
way." (Matthew 2:16-18).  But are we listening, and more
importantly, do we CONTINUE to listen? We can start out well,
but our enemy would be just as happy to kill us on
round 18 as he would on round 1.

I've started to look around for caution tape in my life.
Hoping that I'm not knee deep in spiritually broken
electrical wire. You might want to take a look
around yourself. There have been a lot of storms,
of every sort, of late. Don't be foolish. Take care.

I would cautiously hasten to say that, past how
this applies to all of us,  this is a  specific
message to someone out there. If you've
gotten a caution from the Lord, but are still
thinking of proceeding with your course
of action: DON'T.  If you wanted a sign
Here it is: