When we ignore the red flags...

I was greatly challenged this week in thinking about David in II Samuel. I was listening to a teacher that mentioned that David made his own, devestating decisions, in spite of God's gentle, though not so subtle nudges to do what was right. One of the first of God's nudgings, though not so gentle, is through Abigail. Abigail pleads for David to not let his anger toward her husband bring stain (the murder of her husband) against one who is one day to be the king. David listened and was grateful for God's saving him from a regrettable action in anger, and for the one obedient to deliver it, Abigail. We also see David later listening to God's "red flag" through Joab. In Samuel 19, Joab confronts David in his grief over Absalom's death (the son who was trying to take over David's position as king), warning that those who have loved and served him faithfully would look upon David's grief and lack of gratefulness to them as a threat, alienating them from King David. David listened and spoke to his faithful with thanks.

However, there are other times that David didn't heed the "red flags" sent by the Lord. For instance, it is recorded that when kings went out to war, King David stayed home. As he was walking, his eyes saw a beautiful maid, Bathsheba, bathing on the rooftop. David inquired about her, asking her to be brought to him and we read, "And one said, 'Is this not the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?' " The nudge to jar his senses to not pursue sin is delivered. You know what he did. He sent for her anyway and lay with her. The results are sickening... an unwanted pregnancy, leading to an attempt to cover wrongdoing which failed, leading to premeditated murder. The punishment for his sin was almost unbeareable...he would be the King of War ( 2 Samuel 12:10), evil would rise up against him in his own household, as well as a companion laying with David's wives in broad day light (both fulfilled by his son Absalom) , and the final blow...Bathsheba's boy would die. There was not enough remorse, and David was very remorseful, to change God's discipline. I'm sure God wanted David to learn his lesson well, just as he wants me to learn my lessons when flirting with and choosing sin. One would think that we would never again see David choose other than what God says to do....

But, David makes a decision to number his soldiers and horses in chapter 24...and God has said not to... so that Israel would depend on their God and not their "resources". Joab again is used to deliver accountability to obedience , " Now may the Lord your God add to the people a hundred times as many as they are, while the eyes of my lord the king still see; but why does my lord the king delight in this thing?" Joab, as respectfully as he could in approaching his King, his boss, is saying, "Don't do this... and embarass and bring shame on your country and kingship!" David follows his own wisdom, however, and sends Joab out to number his men, against the Lord's commands. Something different happens this time. David becomes aware of his wrongdoing without anyone having to confront him. As the numbers are coming in, he becomes remorseful and goes to God...troubled with his actions. God responds this time by giving David his choice of punishment...7 years of famine in the land, fleeing before foes for 3 months, or 3 days of pestilence throughout the nation. David chose the later...not wanting to "fall into the hands of men". It is recorded that 70,000 men from Beersheba to Dan died, and just as the angel was raising his hand toward Jerusalem, God relented. At that moment, David saw the angel and remorse seized him. From his heart he begged, "Behold it is I who have sinned and it is I who have done wrong; but these sheep, what have they done? Please let Thy hand stand against me and against my father's house." Following a command from God, David erected an altar and the Lord was moved and the plague was held back.

Where do I start? David whom God names as a man with a "whole heart for God" ignored God's loving red flags, warnings "not to go there." He followed His own way and there were consequences. The first time, he had to be cornered by the prophet Nathan...and the discipline was unbearable. But David knew he deserved it and chose to pick himself up and go on. The second time he regretted his actions right after the numbers came in, before confrontation by God or God's prophet, Gad. Therefore, God gave David the choice of punishment. We still see David's selfish heart, "but do not let me fall into the hand of man", but as word came to the king of all the dying men, 70,000, he became even more remorseful, begging the punishment to be upon himself and his father's house. David seemingly really changed... finally! From selfish to selfless. From "who me?", to "I'm the guilty." The closing of his life comes and Soloman, Bethsheba's son is given the throne.

There is one more thing. After really "blowing it" all these times, does David sit around and mope? After all, his greatest dream, building a temple to house his God, has become a lost dream... part of the consequences of his sin. NO! He then decides that he may not be able to complete his dream, but he can do the work needed to be the best of help for the one who would get to build the temple. We see that David in the later years of his reign collecting all the materials needed for his son to be able to get straight to the work of building God's house instead of being depressed or bitter with the situation.

So, how well have I learned these lessons?

Do I listen to those nudges or red flags God sends my way...His efforts to keep me in obedience and thus escape those things undesired?

Do I accept discipline and see God's loving hand in it? Do I accept my own discipline, taking ownership of sin in my life, or "push" it off on others?

Do I give thanks for those in my life that are the prophet Gad or Joab to me... pointing out when I'm about to step into sin? How about when they call me to "ownership" of those things that are displeasing when "worn" by a child of God?

I need to listen...
I need to obey...

Good thing the Lord loved and helped King David...
Good thing He loves and helps me as well...

I need it!

Autumn...

...the close of summer. Cool days and frost push out the warm embraces of spring and summer days. The young leave baby dependent days for food and shelter behind and start the survival bid on their own.

Seasons...4 a year. Then we start all over again. Seasons of a life...4... never to be repeated again. Dependency, adolescence, independence and old age...possible dependence in a different way. All in a plan. All for a divine purpose. I am approaching the fourth phase of my life... do I have the desire to be part of the Plan? Am I willing to do the work of molding and becoming more wise as the days go on? Who will I be as I enter that "old age"? I pray the answer is, "Just who He wanted me to be in representing Him and His big plan in life."

Let's get the work done while I have the energy left... OK? Winter makes me slow!!!

"But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith; praying in the Holy Spirit;
keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ
to eternal life." Jude 20,21

I'm back...

It's been a long time since I've posted. I'm of that generation that is the pen and paper pusher. Yet, as I do my journal each day, I've had the sense that I'm supposed to share it on this technology so part of our culture! You see, mentoring, or the sharing of my heart and the lessons I've learned in life, is something I've been told I do well. I've experienced many things in my life... divorce, miscarriages, brain cancer and early death of my children's father, my loving companion...and through it all, I've learned lessons in life.

For instance, I have come to realize I must be purposeful in acknowledging blessings. I have found it, in fact, to be very advantagous to actually write them down in a list. In the first 4 months of my husband's diagnosis of anaplastic astrocytoma of the brain (level 3 brain cancer), we kept track of the blessings that were already in place when we didn't know we needed them... a move to Houston, giving us MD Anderson Cancer Center, 2 families in our church that we'd known over the years...a ready made support system, and a move of our close friends and parenting partners to Houston as well... we lived 7 houses away from each other. I don't believe those "helps" just happened...and there were so many more. Today as a single mom, I continue to count my many blessings...and I don't intend to ever forget to do so!

There are many attitudes that I have choosen to take through the many roads in life, but one of the most important, I believe, is that I choose to count my blessings. There is so much for which to be thankful. Life may be taking place in the trenches of death and stress, but there are blessings also. So, from this point on, I wish to share with you my journey as I live life. Stuggling? Yes. Pain? Sometimes. Scared? More than you can imagine. But, thankful? Almost always... and I search for the road of thanks until I find it! I pray you will, too!

Not surprised... shocked!!!

This weekend was all planned out... or so I thought! Dad came to see us and we were so excited. We had a great time! Saturday night he took us to Katie's choice of restaurant in Tulsa for her 18th.... and also celebrated my birthday! Little did I realize that while we left my home was being converted by Becky and friends for a 50th birthday celebration... mine!!!
I was shocked... to put it mildly. My mind couldn't take all the new information in... like I saw Becky... it took time to compute! Then I saw others, and finallly noticed my brother, Monte and Ryan... they said I had looked at them and didn't comprehend!!! The Weichbrodt's were here too!! Paige, Zippy, Corgans.. what can I say? It was a huge spread of wonderful food, great friends and lots of love poured out to me... especially by my dear daughters, Becky and Katie, who did so much planning and work. Girls, what a great job you did... and what memories you made for me!!!
Dearest to my heart are the people... my friends and family.... who make life wonderful. God has, in His wonderful plan given each of them to me... and I delight in His gift to me through each one. I cannot imagine life without those relationships that go beyond superficiality... and loves and cares as Christ. There is no other more significant understanding in life than to understand that those around me are blessings... put there by the Almighty God himself to show me His love for me. In all this I give great thanks... 50 years worth!!
Love you all... especially my Becky, Ryan, Katie and Jonathan. You are all incredible...He deems it so!!!

Exerpts from "Ideas Matter", Everett Piper Ph.D., Pres. of Oklahoma Wesleyan University

Humm...



"For years, I, along with most all of my peers in higher education assumed that the human deveolpment theory was simply and purely an empirical fact. We believed that students came to college with ... minds where everything was black and white, right or wrong. We claimed that these students came to us with authority as the basis of all moral judgement. If the pastor said it was true, it was true. If mom said it was right it was right. If dad said it was wrong it was wrong. Accordingly, we in the ivory tower believed it was our obligation to challenge these students to grow beyound the dualism of a Judeao-Christian ethic, take off the blinders, and embrace the multiple and various facets of "truth". Surely our young people needed to step away from the comforts of home and churches and become more nuanced and "mature" in their morality and in their thinking.

I no longer believe this. In his recnet book, Educating Post-Modern America, Generation X Goes to College, Peter Sax contends that one of the basic characteristics of today's college students (and perhaps culture as a whole) is the pervasive and oxymoronic belief in absolute relativism. Sax argues that opinions are all that matter in the classrooms, boardrooms and bedrooms of contemporary life. It isn't that everything is black and white, right or wrong, but to the contrary, today nothing is black or white and nothing is right or wrong. ..... To the contrary, personal opinion rather that objective standards has become the final measure of all truth. The relative value of any action or belief is the only basis for judgment. ...one value or another is simply a matter of personal choice and personal preference. It's all relative..."Who are we to judge...?"

...Is Peter Sax referring to young people other than those in our schools, our shurches, and our neighborhoods? Is this a critique of a culture elsewhere--somebody else's but not ours? All I know is this: ... (I) am awakened to the sobering limitations of prevailing academic fads. Human development theory has its place but it falls far short of providing the "liberal" environment and consequent learning that it claims as its highest good. You see, the word liberal implies liberation. And implicit in the word "liberation" is the presupposition that there are bad things from which we should be liberatied. It is not bad because we think so. It is bad simply because it is. The holocaust was evil not just in the minds of those who disagreed with it. It was explicitly and absolutely bad because it violated an immutable and transcendent moral standard. It was, is and always will be simply wrong to incinerate people in furnaces because you have more political power than they do. But here is the sobering reality-- our young people today (and I have had tons of them in under my tutelage) do not have the intellectual training and moral confidence to defend the logic of the previous several sentences.

Ideas matter. Ideas that disparage the time-tested truths of an earlier day while fawning over the newest intellectual fads may lead us down a very dangerous path..."

Food for thought!!!

Long time no read.... from me!!!

Did you think I'd left for good? I had a long post written the other day and I had to leave for an appointment...hit a wrong key and... you got it... it disappeared. It will be interesting if any of you are looking anymore... or have given up on me!!!

Lots has happened...to Lookout Mountain, GA to see Ryan and take Katie to Covenant... I love that college... because of the kids that go there!!! I've started speaking with Christian Women's Clubs... and will be speaking here on the 9th. I've gotten through a 5th Valentine's Day and anniversary (it would have been our 25th) without David, and I am currently in the throes of following and supporting Katie and Jonathan in debate tournaments...which I love!!! What else can a mother do? It's not always clean house, let me tell you!!! And it can drive me nuts!!!

And admidst all that...I'm also going to start practicing what I teach... slow down and sit before God... so I can hear Him. I have found myself so busy with so many things that I have not given to Him enough time for listening to Him. My goal is to start keeping 2 hours in the am for me... to study the Word and pray. I want to let Him open any closets that I might be hiding from Him... or even hiding from me. How we cleverly do that! We don't want to "go there"... we often have to wade through pain to get to the high ground of peace, or face our ugly flaws to achieve the beauty we so desire. Oh, if we only would realize the fullness of being His daughter or son...then we could see our beauty and value through the flaws and pain here on this earth. That closet wouldn't hold the "monsters" we don't want to see or slay. Indeed, we would face them squarely... with the one beside us that grants us protection and purpose, beauty and peace....

...and that is what I'm going to do. He loves me enough to make me whole!!! (Right, Ryan?) So, though my schedule seems clogged as ever...my closets are going to be hunted down... and cleaned.

I'd appreciate your prayers....

Alright...

... I will write later. I had a long blog to post, hit a wrong key, and Pooffff... it was gone. Now I don't have time to write what I had down... ba humbug!

Technology doesn't like me....

Hugs do....

Mom of many....to you.