christian walk | The Road Home to You

Beyond the Mundane

April 30, 2018
The Road Home to You

I see Your face in every sunrise
the colors of the morning are inside Your eyes
The world awakens in the light of the day
I look up to the sky and say
You’re beautiful
– Phil Wickham

Yesterday at church, a friend approached me and asked how my week had been. She and I have both been on the road to recovery in our hearts, minds and souls and we’ve got an agreement to always be real with each other. Apparently my pause was a beat too long because she looked me in the eye and said, “Honesty.”

To which, I paused longer and finally said, “I don’t think I remember.”

Sunday morning and I couldn’t even remember how the previous few days had gone. I’ve been busy and productive but not frantic. It was a week like most others, full of driving my daughter to her dance lessons, writing and recording and making music with my friends. Laundry and dishes were done, the pets were cared for and played with. It was not exceptional in any regard.

And in retrospect, that kind of makes me sad.

I know that not every day, or even every week can have a mountaintop experience. There are going to be those average days, where everything maintains the status quo and I suppose that’s alright, but…

Here’s what I wrestle with: as a follower of Christ, shouldn’t every day have a depth or a richness to it that maybe other people just don’t quite get to experience? If we have a relationship with the Creator of All, the King of Kings, the Savior of the world, shouldn’t life be a bit more…profound?

Consider this: every day the sun rises and the sun sets. Birds wake to sing their songs. The ocean waves roar and pound, shifting the earth below. Babies take their first breaths while others take their last. Every day the sound of laughter escapes and is carried off on the winds. There is a world out there that is constantly changing and we are a part of it.

Today, we woke up. You and me. We’ve been given another chance to share our hearts, our lives, our joys, our sorrows with others. God said to us, “You’ve got today, kid. Go make the most of it.” and I think, in that exhortation, there is also the invitation to see His wonder. We’ve got a front-row seat to not only see and experience God’s goodness, but to recognize it as such.

But do we? If I’m honest, the answer – more often than not – is, no. I tend to go through my days in an almost numb state. It’s the same routine. It’s the same household chores. It’s the same old news. Every. Single. Day.

And I tend to get sucked in to thinking very little about the magnificent, miraculous world that God has created and allows me to live in. What an incredible honor we have been given.

So here’s my bit of advice – to all of us:

Take note. Eyes up. Look for God. He’s everywhere. In the face of the old man standing on the street corner with a battered cardboard sign. In the grip of a newborn babe’s tiny hand as she clings to your pinky. In the clouds as they dance across the skies. And in the sound of the voice saying “I love you.”

God is all around us. Do we see Him?

The Unlikeliest of Friends

April 24, 2018
The Road Home to You

Do you all remember the song, “Looking for Love (In All the Wrong Places)” by Johnny Lee? Probably not, if you’re younger than 40, but it’s likely that you’ve heard the phrase, none-the-less. I remember crooning that song in my childhood, not understanding any of the lyrics until I was a little older.

That being said, here I am, in my mid-40’s now and that phrase is running through my mind, but not for reasons you might expect. You see, a weird thing happened this week.

Let me back up…

So…I’m a Christian. I think that’s pretty well established. But here’s something you probably didn’t know about me – I dig true crime. Now, before you gasp, let me assure you – I do not endorse or support crime of any kind. But, man…give me a good, old fashioned, real-life ‘who-dun-it’ and I’m hooked. I like to consider the psychology of a killer. What makes them tick? Is it nature or nurture? (The answer, by the way – Both.) I like to think about how I would respond if I were ever in a life or death situation because I think it’s important to be prepared and aware that bad things happen to good people.

Likewise, I recognize that we are all just one choice away from becoming the very thing we hate or fear. There, but the grace of God, go I.

So, now that you know that part of me dear reader, it may not come as a surprise that I also listen to true crime podcasts. True crime, it turns out, is kind of a hot topic right now. I’m not entirely sure why it’s become the thing that everyone wants to listen to, but there you have it. Needless to say, there are at least a billion podcasts on the subject right now.

There is one in particular that has been around for a while that I really enjoy. Mind you, the subject matter isn’t especially light and fluffy and, to be sure, the women who host it aren’t exactly reverential. Sometimes their fans get a little…over exuberant, in my opinion, but it’s in this ‘fandom’ that the weird thing happened. And it makes me so happy.

A woman in the fandom decided to create a Facebook group that is for both fans of the podcast and also Christian. Within the first day over 500 people had joined this subgroup. Immediately, people began sharing who they are. We introduced ourselves, like we were members of a 12-step program. “Hi, I’m Brandy. I’m a Christian and I like true crime.” “Hi, Brandy!” It was weird – truly.

But also super cool because just as quickly, people began sharing their prayer needs or praising God for amazing things He’d recently done in their lives. A university student asked if anyone had any good suggestions for Bible study materials for the student on the go. People were praying for each other. Literally. Friendships were formed.

It’s become my favorite thing on Facebook right now, especially in light of all the political turmoil that’s consumed us the past year and a half. Here, on this platform that is so full of either vitriol or shallow memes, there has grown this little group of like-minded people from all over the world that can just as easily talk about the latest tragedy that’s struck their hometown (and ask for prayers over it) as they will praise God because He proved faithful again.

It’s an unlikely place to find a safe corner, is it not, in the middle of a bunch of people who like true crime?

I don’t know where your circumstance find you, friend. Maybe you’re in a job that is dragging you down, surrounded by people who seemingly only care about the bottom line and not a lick about your soul. Maybe you’re a student in an environment that is hostile and runs rampant with the minimization of sin. Or maybe you’re like me, a stay at home mom who’s social life is lived mostly online because that’s just the season of life you’re in right now. But let this encourage you – wherever you are, whatever you do and with whomever is beside you, you have the ability to be a bright light.

Go ahead, reach out to our cubicle mate and share a bit of yourself with them. I bet they feel a little lost in the shuffle, too. Start a conversation with that girl in your Science Lab who always wears the best nerd shirts. Chances are she’s got a great sense of humor. When your “friend” on social media posts something about needing prayer, take the time to actually write your prayer out right then. Trust me, even if they don’t believe in the power of prayer, if they’re asking you to do it and then you do…they will thank you.

Or hey…find a group of people who like something you like and find out how many of them also love Jesus. You may just be surprised. Friends can be found in the unlikeliest of place, it seems.

Peace….(and ssdgm) – Brandy

Go Forth and Love

April 18, 2018
The Road Home to You

Here it is, the greatest commandment all summed up: Love God. Love people.

Well, that seems pretty simple. It almost seems passive, really. Like, you just have to have good feelings towards God and people, right?

Well, that’s how I’ve been approaching it more or less and today as I was doing the dishes, griping in my mind about how I seem to be the only one in our home that ever does anything to support the everyday running of our home, including all the times this past week that I’ve cleaned up after the newest member of our household, a very cute and sweet puppy named Milo, suddenly and without warning, God did what He seems to do expertly with me. He sucker-punched me. In the head.

It went like this:

Me: (scrubbing aggressively on a poor, unassuming plate that had done nothing wrong, and in fact, had done it’s job and done it well by holding the food I’d made for last night’s dinner…) Ugh! I just…. I mean…. Why do I have to always…? Ya know, God, it’s just not right! (Continues to scrub overly hard on successive dishes while slamming them into the dishwasher, meanwhile huffing and puffing about how messy our home is, how no one else seems to even see the mess, much less clean it, and about how completely unfair my overwhelmed life is).

God: (Calm, cool and collected in his best James Earl Jones impression) In all that you do, do it unto the Lord. That’s me.

Me: (Stops cold.) Yes, but the dishes, God?

God: Imagine that I’m coming over for a visit. Oh, look. I’m already here.

Like I said, sucker-punched. By God.

So what in the world does this have to do with loving God and loving people? Well, my friends, everything.

We love God as we obey. We love Him as we hear and respond to His voice (even if it’s in the form of a weird James Earl Jones type thing). We love Him by serving…people.

We love people by giving our time and energies to meet their needs. We love them by listening when they need to bend our ear even though we’ve got places to go, people to see and laundry to fold. We love them by being present. We love them best when we sacrifice our own agenda to meet them where they are, the very same way Jesus did as He carried that cross and felt the separation from His Father so that we could know His presence.

You see, I am not especially happy to be in our kitchen. I’ve never been a big cook and honestly, the more you cook the more dishes you have to wash. It seems like a lose/lose proposition to me. It turns out, though, my kids kind of like to eat. And they prefer when they don’t have to fend for themselves, settling on Top Ramen…again.

So I did it. I finished washing the dishes I had left. I washed the countertops and the kitchen didn’t look half-bad. Less than an hour later, though, it was time to create the dinner mess. And I did that, too. It wasn’t fancy…unless you call adding mashed bananas and yummy flavors to pancake mix fancy (in which case, I may be the greatest chef ever). We sat at the table, ate our syrup-drenched discs of goodness and chatted. I don’t think any of us even remember the conversation and that’s okay. The fact is, we had it.

God showed up when and where I needed to hear him – in the middle of my messy kitchen. And, at least this time, I responded to His voice out of obedient love which enabled me to turn around and love the people I am with. Because, let’s face it, sometimes the hardest people to love are the ones you share a roof with. But here’s some good news: if you can love them, you can love other people, too.

And that’s all we’re called to do, friends: Love God. Love People. So, go forth and love.

*Authors Note: The above account is entirely true, except the whole part about nobody else ever doing anything to help. The author would like to state that her frustrated state of mind likely led her to voice thoughts that were not entirely true. Though, Milo the puppy does not seem to be at all interested in making the housework any easier.