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I’ve read the laments, I’ve heard them, I’ve spoken them myself….many times.  Categorical comments about the year behind us. Hard, tough,  glad it’s over.  We take 365 individual days and put one label on them…. and more often than not it leans toward the negative.

I just returned from a trip.  3000 miles in the car.  “How was your trip?” my first go to was the 200 miles we drove in a crazy winter storm.  Less than 10% of our travel time… less than 1% or the time we were gone… that was my focus.  I lead with that? Wow.

Trauma and drama trump blessings and good times. Why?

I had an amazing friend.  I really only knew her as she was dying of cancer.  For 2 years she consistently lived trauma and drama 90% of the time.  But she was one of the happiest people I knew. Why?

I have some friends…. 4 kids of their own packed into an already not so huge house.   Through a series of what appears to be unfortuate, sad, hard, dramatic and traumatic events they took on an additional 4 kids.  I sat at their table for a brief moment this Christmas and listened to this family of 10 make beautiful music. Wow!

I was looking for a particular phrase in the Bible, “Behold, look at what the Lord has done” and found Psalm 118:23 “This is the LORD’S doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.”  I love it…. this event… this trip… this hard day… this hard week.  Is it all marvelous?  All you have to do is look at the very next verse and I think you will find the key.

Psalm 118:24 “This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.”  How did my dying friend remain happy?  How does a packed house remain joyful? How do I get to the end of a trip or the end of 2016 and not let it be defined by the storm? Here it is… the 1 way.

1.  REJOICE.  It would be impossible to categorically label any year bad when there had been 365 days of glad.

Did my friend have hard days?  Oh yeah… every single one of them.  Does the family of 10 have their moments…. oh yes, you can be sure of that.   But they know the secret… that the Lord made every day, every hour, every minute, every second.  They do the 1 thing… they only thing…. that will make this a “glad” new year…. Rejoice!

So, 3 days into 2016.  How are you doing with that Rejoice thing? How am I doing?  This is the day, the hour, the minute, the second, that the Lord has made…. I will rejoice and be glad.  I pray at the end of this year we will be saying “Behold, look at what the Lord has done” or even better “This is the LORD’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.”

Read the rest of Psalm 118 if you have a minute.    Glad New Year!

I’m really not sure how we got there.  We were just making small talk with the cashier at a second hand store. Cassidy, my 17 year old daughter and I had one of those co-manic moments where we both decided it would be fun to make mittens and hats from old sweaters.  We stood at the check out counter and just started chatting like we are known to do.  Each of us trying to say something cute or clever to make the cashier smile as she totaled up our treasures.  I think it went something like this:

Cassidy:” My dad said I needed to buy some jeans WITHOUT holes in them since it’s about to get cold”

Cashier: “Yeah, you certainly won’t need shorts… sometimes I see girls in here with shorts that have holes in them… I’d never let me daughter dress like that.”

Cassidy: “Well, my mom says my shorts have to cover at least everything a swim suit would cover….” (ok, I’m not sure I really said that, but we’ll let it slide for the sake of the story)

Cashier: “My shorts had to go below my knee when I was your age”

Me:  “Will you have your daughter dress the same way?” Cahier:  “Yes ma’am…”

(At this point I thought we might be having a great discussion about modesty…. but the conversation went another way)

“You see, I’m adopted…”  Her tone and volume dropped and she leaned over the counter a bit.  She told us her story. She told me a name and then wrote it down on a piece of paper she tore off a scrap. “This was my brother”, she said, “google his name and you’ll know the whole story”  She handed me the scrap of a scrap with a name written on it…when we got to the car we googled the name.  We read a horrific story of abuse and neglect.  A very, very sad story, one that you would never have guessed had you passed through her line and not started talking about holes in jeans. Everyone has a story.

She was one year old when her entire life took a hard left turn.  We were both a little choked up… ok, a lot choked up. “Lord, have mercy” came out of my mouth more than once as I read one of the many news articles that popped up in my Google search.

Stories take time.  Telling them. Listening to them. Googling them.  Knowing them.

One thing I love about ReJoyed is the story behind some of the metal I use.  A copper pan that I found at a garage sale in South Tampa.  Friends give me silver plated platters that have been sitting unused in storage for years. Metal treasures left over from a yard sale that would likely have been discarded by less thoughtful hands.  A bowl full of metal parts left from a project. That copper plate set I bought from a second hand store in Sun Valley, Idaho.   Every bit of it has a story.  At one time manufactured for a purpose.  It usually lands in my studio when it has become no longer useful… used up… beat up… unwanted.

That’s me, That’s you, That’s the cashier at the second hand store… created for a purpose.  Everyone has a story.  In Psalm 51:12 David asks the Lord to “Restore”  his Joy.  (By the way, this is where I get the word  “ReJoyed” from)  He may as well be saying “ReStory” me.  Take what is no longer useful… used up… beat up… unwanted and make it new.  Adopt me, if you will.  My life has taken a hard left turn.  Maybe I had control over that, maybe I didn’t… but you, Oh God,  creator AND redeemer can make ALL things completely new.

Everyone has a story.

They say, “What you do on the first day of the year is what you will do for the rest of the year.”

So, what are you doing today?

My day actually started here… hanging out with some old friends and making new ones around a campfire into the wee hours of the morning… in my world it just doesn’t get any better than that!

After a little rest, I’m starting my morning here…

Reading these words….

Of course with this…

My plan for the rest of the day is…

Be intentional about relationships….

Get into my studio and “ReJoy” for a while….

Maybe pick up my guitar and practice for a minute or two…

Go for a walk.

So, if what they say is true…”What you do on the first day of the year is what you will do for the rest of the year”… then I’d say that 2015 is going to be a wonderful year.

So… what are you doing today?

I pray that today… and the rest of  your 2015… is filled with excellent things.

 

Four hundred and eighty-six feet above the Snake River, the Perinne Bridge near Twin Falls, Idaho,  is one of the few bridges in the country that allows base jumping.  On any given day there is surprisingly steady stream of jumpers.  On a recent visit to the bridge we watched jumper after jumper jump with a small pack attached to their back that held the difference between life and death.  Every time  someone stepped over the rail and let go I gasped,  held my breath and  didn’t take another  until the chute  was adequately filled with air and the jumper became a floater. I’m told they have just two seconds in which to pull the cord that opens their chute…  less than 5  seconds to the bottom if something goes wrong.  As I  watched with my children,  I wondered what I would do if something did go wrong.  Thankfully we never had to figure that out.

Why…. why do we have such a strange fascination with things that have the potential to go terribly wrong.  Sometimes we just can’t look away.  We can’t turn our minds to something else.  I have this problem, maybe you do too. Not only can I get fixed on the base jumpers, I can get fixed on the sickness, the drama, the bad news, the brokenness, the mess.  I think we all do.

A few days later I stood on that same bridge… 486 feet above the Snake River and absorbed a glorious sunset.   Breathtaking… but not in the gasping and holding breath … but an awe and wonder sort of take my breath away.    I could look at nothing else.  I was captivated.  Somehow, watching the sunset makes everything seem right in my world… even when it’s not.  The vast vista filled the entire canyon and  my mind, leaving room for nothing else… lovely!

I can focus on the micro….a base jumper risking life and limb for a moment of thrill.  Gasping for breath and wondering what I will do if something goes wrong.  Or…I can focus on  the macro… a sunset, created by the creator to showcase His creation for a moment of thrill for all who pause to take it in.  Both capture my attention… one holds me hostage with fear…. The other brings a sense of peace and freedom.

WHATEVER…..

I am now several weeks into my 48th year of life…. And NO! Base Jumping is not on my bucket list.  I have very little desire to even stand on the Perinne Bridge.   But I  do conquer my fear for a  walk out on that bridge to watch the sunset.  It is a great vantage point, but I need to decide what I am going to  look at.  Will it be something that holds me hostage with fear, or something that brings peace and freedom.

When I turned 48, Philippians 4:8  (4:8 for my 48th year) came to my mind.   It goes like this, “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”  Did you get that?  Think about the true, honorable, just pure, lovely, commendable.   The “whatevers” don’t hold you hostage with a possibility of ending bad.  They bring peace and freedom.  Oh, they might take your breath away….  In a good way. So, for my 48th year… and beyond… I am thinking about what I’m thinking about.  If it’s not true, honorable, just, pure, lovely or commendable…. it’s micro… a small thing in the big picture…. and I turn my attention elsewhere.

Yes, I have a few things in my life that will hold me hostage if I let them… it’s not like we could pretend those base jumpers just did not exist.  They do…but where is my focus?   From the vantage point I have been given I have a choice…. And I choose to focus on “Whatever”.  The true, honorable, just, pure, lovely or commendable … and I think I might just go watch the sunset tonight.

Would you like to join me?

 

I woke up early this morning and sat in the dark.  I thought it might be nice to enjoy the lights on our new tree.  It’s a real tree, I could see the outline, smell the pine scent,  but no lights. We are waiting for the  lights. Apparently they are coming in the mail (thank you Amazon Prime)  later today. So, I wait.

Thanks to the Christmas zeal of a 10 year old, the ornaments are spread… well, actually they are sprawled… across the coffee table. I can’t see them because it’s dark, but I can feel them with my toes. And I know when the sun finally comes up it will expose a mess… the mess of    Christmas. The ornaments are just waiting to be hung on the tree… but first… the lights. We wait for the lights.

My husband loves Christmas tree lights. At some point during the tree decorating we will hear the story. The story about when he was a poor college student, living 1442 miles from home. His family wanted him home for Christmas… he said if they promised to put all blue lights on the Christmas Tree he would get there somehow. His sister went out and spent her own money on blue lights. He hitchhiked the 1442 miles from Minneapolis, Minnesota to Buhl, Idaho.

There is something about those lights. They draw us in. They draw us to. And, they need to be on the tree before anything else. Everything comes together, eventually… but we have to wait for the lights. I hate waiting. The sprawled out ornaments feels like the mess of life. I know there is beauty here… I know it…but until the light comes it’s a mess.

Sometimes the lights come to us, via Amazon Prime shipping, and sometimes we need to do whatever we can (note to my kids: hitch hiking was ok in the 70’s but is no longer an acceptable mode of transportation) to get there.

So, we wait… and when the light gets here it will make everything beautiful. My sprawling mess will be something beautiful. Isaiah 9 says….“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light, those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone….” Walking in darkness? Living in a land of deep darkness? I’m sitting it it for sure.  That’s why I’m up in the middle of the night.  I’m looking for the light.  Something to help me make sense of the mess, the questions, the hard times…. The solution?

Light.

Isaiah goes on to name the light “… and HE shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” According to Isaiah it  is a light well worth waiting for.  The Good News is…It, or rather He .. is already here! No Amazon Prime, no hitch hiking home…. The gospel of John says it poetically …. “The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.” And he goes on to say… “ And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have  seen his glory,”   Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace… JESUS.  The light… Ahhh… the  Light.  No waiting.

Light first… then we can hang our sprawling mess on that tree… and He makes it beautiful.