Review: The Lazy Genius Way

Posted on by
The Lazy Genius Way

Suppose you want to reorganize your pantry. You might research organizational systems, pull everything out, dust shelves and canned goods, check expiration dates, sweep, buy cute containers, make labels, and spend the better part of a day, if not days, placing items in just the right order. And then you get frustrated when that order is not maintained.

Or you might go the opposite extreme and decide nobody has the time and energy for that.

Kendra Adachi calls these the “genius” and “lazy” approaches. She proposes a happy medium: that we be geniuses about what matters and lazy about what doesn’t. She shares thirteen principles for implementing this in her book, The Lazy Genius Way: Embrace What Matters, Ditch What Doesn’t, and Get Stuff Done.

For those of us who tend to make any small need into a major project, Kendra says, “When you care about something, you try to do it well. When you care about everything, you do nothing well, which then compels you to try even harder. Welcome to being tired” (p. 11. Kindle version).

On the other hand, “Little did I know you can be just as exhausted from not trying as you can from trying too hard. Managing apathy and survival mode takes as much energy as managing rules and perfection” (p. 15).

One of her premises is that there is no one right method or tool that will appeal to and work for everyone. If we’re to be geniuses about what matters, that will differ from person to person.

She mentioned that she likes to make bread. She cares about it and puts a lot of effort into it. But it’s fine if others have no desire to make bread and buy the bargain brand.

She likes comfortable clothes in neutral colors and doesn’t like top spend a lot of time on clothing decisions. But she acknowledges that others like to pill out five different outfits before they decide what to wear, and that’s fine.

That’s why she comes back again and again to acknowledging what’s important to you, not Instagram or the neighbors or whoever.

Some quotes that stood out to me:

I want to stop judging women who have it all together, assuming they have something to hide. I want to stop applauding chaos as the only indicator of vulnerability (p. 16).

You might think a routine is nothing more than doing the same things in the same order every day, but that’s not the whole story. Routines are meant to lead you into something else (p. 74).

It’s easier to clean up a cup of spilled milk than it is to mend a second-grader’s hurt feelings (p. 89).

House rules are about connection, not protection. They keep the first domino from tipping and knocking over a lot more (p. 99).

The goal isn’t to maintain control but to be in a better headspace to engage with what matters—namely, your people (p. 99).

You can celebrate where you are without being distracted by where you’re not yet (p. 210).

You’re tired because you’re trying to overcome the world. but we can take heart because the God of the universe has already done that (p. 211).

Though this book is not advertised as a Christian book, and the author doesn’t base her principles on the Bible, a few sentences like that last one are sprinkled through the book.

One thing I loved about the book is the recap statements at the end of each chapter. I get frustrated wishing I could retain everything I read from nonfiction. Having the key points collected at intervals helps me pull things together at the end of each chapter plus provides a quick place to review.

Kendra writes in an easily understandable and relatable way. Don’t miss her footnotes—many of them are funny asides.

My only minor criticism is that the explanations and examples seemed perhaps a little overdone in places. But I suppose a wide variety of examples makes the book applicable to more people.

Kendra also has a Lazy Genius Podcast, but I have not listened to it yet.

This book was all the rage a few years ago. I kept seeing it mentioned everywhere. I was intrigued, but didn’t get around to it. I’m glad I finally did.

(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)

A Servant’s Heart

Posted on by
A Servant's Heart

A visiting speaker to our church several years ago told of noticing one particular flight attendant on his trip. She seemed kind-hearted and attentive to everyone’s needs.

As the preacher exited the plane, he commented to this flight attendant that he had appreciated her kindness and care of her passengers. He ended by saying, “You have a real servant’s heart.”

The flight attendant was all smiles until the last line. She bristled, offended at being called a servant.

In Christian circles, saying someone has a servant’s heart is a compliment.

But to the world, “servant” connotes elitism, class differences, and degradation.

When Jesus lived on Earth, He turned conventional thinking on its head in many ways.

One of those ways was in the area of greatness and service. He told His disciples, after two of them asked for positions at His side in His coming kingdom:

You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave [or bondservant], even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many (Matthew 20:25-28).

Jesus Himself provided an example of serving others. Throughout His ministry, He healed, comforted, and encouraged people. He touched the untouchables. He took time for the marginalized.

But the night before His crucifixion, just before He was betrayed and arrested, He made a special point of demonstrating service to His disciples. He washed their feet. This was a task usually done by the lowest servants in that day of dusty, unpaved roads and sandaled feet. Afterward, Jesus asked them.

Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them (John 13:12-17).

Like many, I believe the example that Jesus wants us to follow is not just in physical foot-washing. That’s not a cultural thing in our era, though there might be times it’s necessary.

I think, rather, Jesus meant this symbolically. We’re to serve each other in whatever way is needed. This seems to be reinforced by what Paul wrote in Philippians 2:3-11:

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Jesus didn’t negate the concept of serving others when He said later that same night, “You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you” (John 15:14-15). After all, friends serve each other. Just before these verses, He spoke of showing love by laying our lives down for each other, as He did. I think He’s speaking of not being servants here in the particular aspect of a servant’s not knowing what His Master is up to. Jesus opened His heart to His disciples and told them what He was doing, even though they didn’t understand.

Perhaps He also meant that serving one another was to be in the manner of a beloved friend, not a servile, perfunctory employee.

Having a servant’s heart doesn’t mean being a doormat, having no will or opinion or activities of our own. But it means being attentive and willing to serve others where needed.

I have to admit, this thinking doesn’t come naturally to me. In some circumstances, as when my husband or mom had surgery, I was in a mindset of helping them in whatever way they needed. And good manners direct us to hold open doors for others, help them when they drop things, and so on. But in everyday life, I’m often in my own little bubble. It’s not that I expect others to wait on me (except in a restaurant). I just don’t actively think about serving others.

But when I do, sometimes I am reluctant or resentful, usually because service clashes with other things I wanted to do. I appreciate what Oswald Chambers said in the September 11 reading from My Utmost for His Highest:

The things Jesus did were the most menial of everyday tasks, and this is an indication that it takes all of God’s power in me to accomplish even the most common tasks in His way. Can I use a towel as He did? Towels, dishes, sandals, and all the other ordinary things in our lives reveal what we are made of more quickly than anything else. It takes God Almighty Incarnate in us to do the most menial duty as it ought to be done.

A servant’s heart requires humility, unselfishness, attentiveness, and faith. I need to pray God will grow those traits in me and help me be willing to see ways I can serve others.

Through love serve one another. Galatians 5:13b

(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)

Laudable Linkage

Posted on by
Laudable Linkage

Here are some of the thought-provoking reads discovered this week:

Why Doesn’t God Make His Existence More Evident? HT to Challies. “God is not interested in merely proving His existence. But for those with eyes to see, and ears to hear, God has made Himself known. He has offered sufficient evidence for rational faith. The question is—Will we trust Him?“

Soft Discipleship Through Friendship, HT to Challies. “It wasn’t through formal, set up discipleship, but what I call ‘soft discipleship’ by my college roommates that I lived with for 3 years: Charissa, Lucy, and Julianne. They didn’t even know that they were discipling me, but because we shared a home together, I was able to see how they lived and walked with the Lord, and understand what it looks like and feels like to have intimacy with God.” I love that term.

How to Talk to Your Kids About Taylor Swift’s New Album, HT to Challies. I’m not familiar with most of her music, but I have been hearing lots about her new album. “It feels like I’m making a moral decision when I listen to her music. How will it affect my girls to hear and see a beautiful young woman sing about a lifestyle that isn’t only objectionable but is in outright defiance to God? Even though my daughters have had a strong Christian upbringing and hold their own personal convictions, will they be able to discern the subtle influences and outright lies they’ll be exposed to when listening to Swift’s music?”

Hospitality Toward the Indwelling God. “This indwelling is not something we earn, nor is it something we lose. It is a gift of grace, added on to the gracious gift of salvation. Still, it’s worth asking, how can I show hospitality to the God living within me? What kind of heart is He pleased to dwell in?”

Preaching Goliath’s Sword, HT to Challies. I’ve heard sermons like the one described–full of “conjecture, guesswork, and speculation,” but not accurately representing the passage. This was written for preachers, but I think it’s applicable to teachers, Bible study students, bloggers—anyone who shares truth from God’s Word.

A Mother’s Love: God’s Love on Display. “Throughout the Bible, God (Who is not human, so neither male nor female) consistently reveals Himself as Father rather than Mother, King rather than Queen, Shepherd rather than Shepherdess, and Husband rather than Wife. However, there are a few occasions when He reveals the greatness of His love by comparing Himself to a mother.”

This Piece of Land, HT to Challies. This is lovely writing. “But isn’t that the way of it? We all crouch down at every starting line, clueless as to what lies ahead. The unknowns start with our first cry and extend to every beginning to come: The turn of the tassel, a job acceptance, the walk down the aisle, two pink lines, or an empty home. What will come of our own piece of land called life? Like Abraham, we hold only a promise.”

A Time We Never Knew, HT to Redeeming Productivity. “I think there is something distinctly different and deserving of our attention about online forums filled with Zoomers wishing that they lived before social media. Wishing it didn’t exist. These are children grieving their youth while they are still children. These are teens mourning childhoods they wasted on the internet, writing laments such as “I know I’m still young (14F), and I have so many years to make up for that, but I can’t help but hate myself for those years I wasted doing nothing all day but go on my stupid phone.” I think this site is a secular resource, but this piece was quite thought-provoking.

Make the Internet Modest Again, HT to Challies. This has nothing to do with hemlines or necklines. “Constantly exposing ourselves online desensitizes us, making it difficult to honor the sacredness of our lives. Modesty may run counter to prevailing wisdom, but I believe it works for the good of my soul.”

How to Love Every Version of Your Wide. This almost made me teary. “I could share so many stories about all of the versions of me that Chad has dealt with through the years. But if I could tell husbands one thing about how to not just deal with your wife in all of her many forms, but to love her well, the way Christ loves the church as you are commanded, I would say this. To truly love all the versions of your wife, you have to develop endless amounts of grace.”

And just for fun: one of my youngest son’s favorite games when he was little was Guess Who? Each player has a tray of cards with people on them. Each player chooses one, and the other player has to guess which one the other chose by asking about clues on the cards (Does he have black hair? A red shirt? and so on). Well, I saw an ad on Instagram the other day for a Jane Austen “Guess Who?” game. I don’t know if there’s anyone I know in real life who would enjoy playing it with me. But perhaps some of you might know fellow Jane fans. (This is not an affiliate link. I just saw it and thought it was a neat idea.)

A. W. Tozer quote about the Bible

The Bible is not an end in itself,
but a means to bring men to an intimate and satisfying knowledge of God,
that they may enter into Him,
that they may delight in His Presence,
may taste and know the inner sweetness
of the very God Himself in the core and center of their well-being.

— A. W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God

Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on by
Friday's Fave Five

These Fridays keep coming around more and more frequently. It’s good to pause occasionally and recount the good parts of the week before they disappear from memory. I join Susanne and friends at Living to Tell the Story to do just that on Fridays.

1. Dresses hemmed. I don’t mind maxi dresses in the winter, but in warm weather, I need the air circulating around my legs. I finally got to hemming up a couple of long dresses and have worn both of them this week.

2. A new mirror. Some time ago, I received an almost-full-length mirror for my craft/sewing room. But company was coming before we could put it up, so I tucked it in the closet . . . where it has been ever since. I asked Jim if he could put it up for me since I was planning on hemming the above-mentioned dresses and needed to check the length in a mirror. He was kind enough to do so. I always feel bad when something I’ve asked him to do turns out to be more complicated than I thought it would be. In this case, I wanted the mirror on the back of the room’s door–which was a hollow inside door with no studs. But he got it up there.

3. Puttering in the craft room. I came in while Jim was working on the mirror to answer a question about how high I wanted it. I stuck around in case he needed me to hand him something or get something for him. Plus, I couldn’t get out of the room without interrupting what he was doing. 🙂 So when he didn’t need me, I worked on decluttering my work table. It was an enjoyable time, and my table looks so much more spacious now.

I’ve had an idea for a long time of doing everything I need to do with the blog and computer on weekdays so I could use Saturday for family or church events, or, if nothing was happening on those fronts, I could get to some of the crafty things I want to do. I have photo albums I need to redo, photos in shoe boxes I need to do something with, craft projects I’d love to work on. I have a watercolor kit I’d love to dabble with. This Saturday afternoon in the craft room was the first opportunity to implement that desire for my craft time.

4. Wrap-up potluck. Our Bible study wrapped up its spring session with a potluck dinner and discussion of what we learned from Isaiah. It was a good way to remind ourselves of some of the key points we studied.

5. Family dinner and games. Mittu, Jason, and Timothy offered to come over and make dinner Sunday evening. Jesse was free to come, too, so we enjoyed time together.

That’s our week..How was yours?

Review: Now and Then and Always

Posted on by
Now and Then and Always

In Now and Then and Always, a novel by Melissa Tagg, Mara Bristol found refuge. Her father had left the family when she was a child. Her mother was so distraught that she was emotionally unavailable to Mara. When her mother died, Mara found various nanny jobs until the last one ended in disaster and danger.

Learning of the Everwood Bed and Breakfast through a rest stop brochure, Mara heads to Maple Valley, Iowa, to find it. The building is charming with good bones, but it’s a little run down. However, it is presided over by a sweet older lady, Lenora, who takes Mara in. Mara is not a Christian and had never felt she was important enough for God to notice. But Lenora sees her as a God-sent daughter. Mara’s stay extends for months.

Then one day, Lenora has to take a trip and asks Mara to take care of the B&B until she returns.

Except she doesn’t return. She doesn’t have a cell phone, so Mara can’t contact her. When foreclosure notices arrive, Mara wonders if Lenora knew of the impending doom and fled. Once again, Mara feels forsaken and alone.

One stormy night, Detective Marshall Hawkins arrives on the Everwood’s doorstep. His only daughter had died two years before, and he’s stuck in his grief. His wife left him. He nearly got addicted to painkillers for constant migraines. He refused to admit anything was wrong, until mistakes in his job led his captain to put him on administrative leave. Marshall packed up and headed out with no destination in mind until stumbling upon Everwood, which looks just like the ideal house that his daughter loved in a magazine ad.

Mara becomes friends with some of the townspeople and with Marshall, who help her renovate Everwood. But as the house reveals its secrets they begin to wonder if Lenora knew them and if she is in danger.

There’s a lot going on in this book. Each main character and even the side characters have multiple issues. Then there’s the house itself and its secrets and background. The mystery of what went on there and what happened to Lenora were both quite good mysteries.

I ended up enjoying the book and I was glad I stuck with it, but I was about ready to toss it during the first two chapters. Much of the dialogue was extremely stilted due to paragraphs of backstory or description or information between each line.

Some of my favorite quotes:

Far be it for me to speak for the Almighty, but I feel fairly confident saying God isn’t looking for impressive people. He’s looking for people who are willing to be impressed by Him.

But I don’t want to spend my life letting my pain be the lens through which I see the world.

Kindness is its own shade of heroism.

Don’t underestimate God’s ability to use even the things we label as random.

She didn’t have to know how it would all work. She just had to take the next step.

I listened to the audiobook, which is free for Audible subscribers until May 7.

April Reflections

Posted on by
April Reflections

There are some months I’m glad to finish. January is one, especially this year. But I am not so eager to get through April. I’ve loved the more moderate temperatures between the cold of winter and heat of summer. And seeing the landscape fill with color and life again is heartening.

Nevertheless, time marches on!

Family

Someone asked Jim recently if he had adjusted to retirement. He said there always seemed to be plenty to do, and much of it was a lot more physical than his regular job.

Jim, Jason, Mittu, and Timothy went camping right at the end of last month. Jesse and I joined them for lunch and dinner one day.

Then Jim, Jason, and Timothy drove to OH to see the eclipse. Jeremy, in RI, drove to Montreal for the same reason and made a weekend of it, exploring the city. Cloud cover prevented our seeing much here in Knoxville, but I caught a brief glimpse through a break in the clouds. We were all texting each other leading up to and during the eclipse.

We celebrated Timothy’s tenth birthday. It’s hard to believe it’s been ten years since he entered the world as a 3 lb. preemie. Now he’s almost as tall as I am.

The lowest part of the month was a tooth extraction for me. But the procedure and recovery went much better than expected.

Overall, we had a nice blend of activities and rest, and enjoyed dinners at each others houses and other get-togethers. We also enjoyed a school play of “Winnie the Pooh” and dinner at a Mexican food restaurant afterwards.

Creating

I only made one card this month, for Timothy’s birthday:

Ten year old birthday card

The “Happy birthdays” were embossed with the Cuttlebug. The 10 was made with the Cricut machine.

Watching

Jim and I watched Damsel on Netflix, kind of a twist on the fairy tale trope. It starts like a fairy tale: a king running out of money arranges for his oldest daughter to marry the prince of a neighboring kingdom. The prince seems nice enough, so the daughter agrees. The stepmother (not evil this time) senses something wrong and tries to advise against the marriage, but she doesn’t have any concrete reason enough to stop it. I won’t spoil the twist, but the “damsel in distress” ends up having to rescue herself. We started watching it mainly because we liked Millie Bobby Brown so much in the Enola Holmes movies as Sherlock Holmes’ little sister. An added treat was that the queen was played by Robin Wright, who was Buttercup in The Princess Bride. Damsel was a little heavy on the girl-power theme, and gory in a few spots (which you’d expect when fighting dragons). But overall we enjoyed it.

One night when was Jim was camping, I watched the Barbie movie, mainly due to nostalgia. Barbies were my main toys. In fact, my family nickname is Barbie. I thought that came from the doll until I learned she came on the market when I was four. So maybe Barbie was a common nickname then.

I had one of the iconic first Barbies in the black and white striped swimsuit. If I still had it now, it would probably be worth a lot of money! But I gave all of that stuff to my four sisters, so I’m sure none of it survived all those years.

Since I was on the early end of the Barbie craze, I was totally unaware of all the variations and accessories that came later.

The film had a couple of offensive comments. And there was a heavy feminist slant.

But there was also an underlying theme about become “real” (although the narrator had a funny line about trading the plastic of Barbieland for the plastic of L.A., so maybe not totally real after all).

The worst and most disturbing part, to me, was the opening scene, Little girls playing “house” with their baby dolls until the new large-than-life Barbie arrives on the scene. Then they start crashing their baby dolls against the ground while a smiling Barbie looks on, to the tune of the opening music of 2001: A Space Odyssey. I’d never seem that movie, but I’ve read it opens in a similar way: an ape-like creature using another creature’s thigh bone to smash the other bones in the desert. I read somewhere that this was supposed to show that one of the first steps of evolution was to create a weapon. Then the next scene showed a space ship, which, I suppose, is meant to show how far man had evolved. But since I’ve heard that the ship computer goes rogue, maybe it’s saying that man hasn’t evolved very far after all, for all his neat inventions. Or else AI’s next step in evolution is creating a weapon (a scary thought).

Not knowing all that, Barbie’s opening scene seemed at first like an anti-motherhood rant (although later a character concedes that motherhood is okay of that’s what you want). But maybe it’s just meant to show that girls “evolved” beyond baby dolls to more grown-up dolls. I read a comment that this scene was also supposed to show that when Barbie came on the scene, she “smashed” the baby doll industry (although during my entire life, I have always seen baby dolls still for sale).

Also, after the “It’s so hard to be a woman” speech, I thought someone could write how hard it is to be a man in this era as well, especially one in Barbieland.

Anyway. . . enough Barbie philosophizing. 🙂

Reading

Since last time I finished:

I’m currently reading:

  • Be Satisfied (Ecclesiastes): Looking for the Answer to the Meaning of Life by Warren W. Wiersbe, nonfiction
  • The Lazy Genius Way: Embrace What Matters, Ditch What Doesn’t, and Get Stuff Done by Kendra Adachi, nonfiction
  • Lenten Lands: My Childhood with Joy Davidman and C. S. Lewis by Douglas H. Gresham, nonfiction
  • Now and Then and Always by Melissa Tagg, fiction, audiobook
  • Yours Is the Night by Amanda Dykes, fiction

Blogging

Besides the weekly Friday Fave Fives, Saturday Laudable Linkage, and book reviews, I’ve posted these since last time:

Writing

Our critique group will finish its current round through everyone’s turn presenting this week, and we’re gearing up to start a new round.

I did actually get some writing/revising in last month! I hope to do more in the future.

How was your April?

(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)

Frustrated with God?

Posted on by
Frustrated with God?

“Do you get huffy with God?”

I had just turned on the radio as I came into the kitchen and heard these words via Elisabeth Elliot’s radio program.

I shifted uncomfortably.

In my more logical moments, I’d say, well, not with Him. With frustrating circumstances, maybe. Yes, that’s it: it’s more like frustration when something happens that He could have prevented.

But in all honesty, I’d have to confess that, in trying moments, sometimes that initial flare-up is directed toward God, followed by much self-chastisement and thought correction.

You know the kind of moments I’m talking about . . .

When you’re running late getting ready for church and drip toothpaste down your front.

When you’re stirring red sauce (why is it always the red sauce?) and some sloshes over onto the stove, floor, and you.

When the computer glitches just before you finish your last task of the day.

When timing matters and you hit every red light on the way to your destination.

When the shortest check-out line contains a customer with a time-consuming problem.

When a much-planned and -prayed for event at church has to be canceled due to bad weather.

When you can’t fall asleep on a Saturday night and you struggle to stay awake in Sunday services.

What’s frustrating about so many of these things is that God could have prevented them. He created the universe and holds it together. He led Israel through the Red Sea on dry ground. Couldn’t He have kept the rain at bay until after the special event? Couldn’t He help us sleep just as well on Saturday nights as any other?

Of course He could. But He doesn’t always.

Some of these situations are our own fault. Toothpaste dribbles and sloshed sauce could be avoided if I were more careful. Red lights wouldn’t make me late if I allowed extra time for travel.

Some irritations come from living in a fallen world. God “makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45). We all get some of God’s blessings, like air to breathe, sunshine, and needed rain. But we all also have to deal with the thorns of life that begin with the fall of mankind.

We also have an enemy of God and of our souls who tries to disrupt God’s work and disturb our peace. God could thwart or restrain the devil at any given moment, but sometimes He doesn’t.

Even though God could, and often does, intervene in these situations, many times He doesn’t. He has a higher purpose in mind.

I found Elisabeth’s radio program on BBN’s site and tried to transcribe a few paragraphs (1).

Do you get huffy with God? Do you just get mad at the world in general? You think maybe God doesn’t have anything to do with this, but you just get peeved, put out.

I think of the words of the Orthodox morning prayer: “In unforeseen events let me not forget that all are sent by you.”

Would God send such a picky little thing as no first class seats, no air conditioning, no choice of meal [situations she had mentioned earlier in the program]?

You really want to know what I think? I think He does. I know He does send such things to me because God is working on shaping in me the image of Christ.

Now, how am I going to learn acceptance, humility, and contentment if my acceptance, humility, and contentment depend on the way I think things are supposed to be going?

She goes on to define contentment as “positive acceptance of conditions we can’t change.”

She quotes Ephesians 3:20, which says God “is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us.” Some translations say “more than we can imagine.” Our imagination likes to focus on deliverance and everything going just like we want. But God’s version of doing something above our imagination might be not changing the situation, but using it to develop in us patience and Christlikeness.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance” (Galatians 5:22-23).

Even in a slow check-out lane or on the highway when someone cuts us off.

It seems easier to trust God with the big trials of life—maybe because they are larger than us or our capacity to handle them. We can’t do anything but entrust Him with them.

But we feel like we should be able to handle the little things. I like what Amy Carmichael once wrote:

The hardest thing is to keep cheerful (and loving) under little things that come from uncongenial surroundings, the very insignificance of which adds to their power to annoy, because they must be wrestled with, and overcome, as in the case of larger hurts. Some disagreeable habit in one to whom we may owe respect and duty, and which is a constant irritation of our sense of the fitness of things, may demand of us a greater moral force to keep the spirit serene than an absolute wrong committed against us (2).

Those little irritations reveal our flesh to us: our sense of entitlement, our selfishness, our impatience. They show us that we need God’s grace and help for everyday frustrations as we do for everything else.

Thank God there is forgiveness with Him, His mercies are new every morning. If we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).

God invites us to “with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16).

Maintaining time in the Word so He can speak to me through it, yielding to His control throughout the day, memorizing verses in the areas I am having trouble with, sending out a quick prayer for help when I feel that agitation and frustration building up will all help in gaining the victory.

Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (Hebrews 4:16).

__________
(1) BBN Radio keeps the recordings for Elisabeth’s programs up on their website for the week they aired. Some of them are also on the Elisabeth Elliot site, but I couldn’t find this one. BBN lists this program title as “More Questions and Answers (A Simpler Life- Power of Christ #10.” It aired April 11.

(2) Houghton, Frank. Amy Carmichael of Dohnavur. (Fort Washington, PA: Christian Literature Crusade, 1983), 86-87.

(Parts of this post have been revised from the archives.)

(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)

Laudable Linkage

Posted on by
Laudable Linkage

Here are a few of the good reads seen online this week:

Borrowing a Death, HT to Challies. “When was the last time you were at a funeral when someone didn’t take the opportunity to talk about their own life when eulogizing the person who has died? We all do it. It’s nearly impossible not to.”

What Is the Ache You Can’t Get Rid Of? HT to Lois. I was very moved by this piece. “What is the ache you can’t get rid of? Whatever it is, listen to it. It might be divinely inspired. A magical calling. Make it your creative offering, and you just might change the world.”

Spiritual Mothers Point Us to Christ, HT to Challies. “The average married couple realizes at some point in their marriage that their spouse will not meet all their needs. As a single woman, I have learned in a different school. God has used Spiritual Mothers to teach me this lesson. Spiritual Mothers are a gracious provision in our lives given by God to both meet needs and to point us to Christ.”

Loosening My Grip. “Maybe you have experienced the same inner war, yearning to risk it all to serve the Savior you are learning to love more and more, but still clinging to the safe and certain.”

For Everything There Is a Seasoning, HT to Challies. A poignant reflection on the loss of a parent.

Taking up our cross

The taking up of the cross is not going to be something heroic or dramatic or enviable.
It’s going to be a daily practice of acceptance of small duties which you don’t really like.
— Elisabeth Elliot

Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on by
Friday's Fave Five

It’s Friday once again—time to share the blessings of the week with Susanne and friends at Living to Tell the Story.

1. Time with Timothy. My son and daughter-in-law had a meeting that lasted all of Saturday morning, so they brought Timothy here. He and his granddad did some of the experiments from the National Geographic Completely Gross Chemistry Set Tim had gotten for his birthday. 🙂

Gross chemistry

Then they played games on their tablets, then made mini pizzas on gluten-free tortillas. Jason and Mittu came home just in time for lunch.

2. Lunch with Melanie. We usually get together every few weeks, but it had been two months since we last did. I had some Red Lobster gift cards, so we enjoyed good food and a nice long chat.

3. Bible Study. Our ladies’ Bible study ended its trek through Isaiah with a particularly good discussion. We have one more wrap-up meeting and potluck next week, then we’ll break for the summer.

4. Naps. Sunday afternoon naps are the best. 🙂 I’d actually rather not take them on other days, but sometimes that’s the difference between being functional or not the rest of the day.

5. Good books could be listed every week. I finished one recently that I am sure will be a favorite of the year, Whose Waves These Are by Amanda Dykes (linked to my review).

That’s my week—how was yours?

Two Books on Isaiah

Posted on by

Isaiah is the OT book most quoted in the NT and foretells Christ’s first and second comings as well as His death for our sins.

Isaiah has some of the most well-known Bible passages:

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called  Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6).

But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53:5-6).

Isaiah contains some of my own personal favorite verses, in addition to those above (just to name a couple):

Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand (Isaiah 41:10).

For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength” (Isaiah 30:15).

But Isaiah is not the easiest book in the Bible to read. It shares prophecies and histories that are a little hard to decipher. An understanding of the historical context is needed to fully comprehend some of the book.

Our Wednesday night Bible studies went just through Isaiah using Tim Chester’s Isaiah for You. I’ve been using Warren Weirsbe’s “Be” commentaries on my current trek through the Bible, but I thought it might be too much to use two sources along with the ESV Study Bible notes. However, the two worked well together.

Isaiah is a long book of 66 chapters. A detailed commentary on every verse would be quite a tome. I’m sure there are some out there. Wiersbe provided short commentary on each chapter. Chester wrote detailed commentary on some of the pivotal passages but briefly summarized the chapters in-between.

Be Comforted, Wiersbe commentary on Isaiah

Wiersbe’ book is Be Comforted (Isaiah): Feeling Secure in the Arms of God. He draws his title from Isaiah 40:1: “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.”

The English word comfort comes from two Latin words that together mean “with strength.” When Isaiah says to us, “Be comforted!” it is not a word of pity but of power. God’s comfort does not weaken us; it strengthens us. God is not indulging us but empowering us. “In quietness and confidence shall be your strength” (p. 11, Kindle version).

The need for comfort arises from the bad news of the first several chapters. Israel has sinned in turning to idols, in worshiping ritually rather than from the heart, and in looking to pagan nations for help instead of God. Because of their unrepentant sin, God had to judge them, and He did so in various ways.

But God’s judgment is meant to be restorative, not just punitive.

The name Isaiah means “salvation of the Lord,” and salvation (deliverance) is the key theme of his book. He wrote concerning five different acts of deliverance that God would perform: (1) the deliverance of Judah from Assyrian invasion (chaps. 36—37); (2) the deliverance of the nation from Babylonian captivity (chap. 40); (3) the future deliverance of the Jews from worldwide dispersion among the Gentiles (chaps. 11—12); (4) the deliverance of lost sinners from judgment (chap. 53); and (5) the final deliverance of creation from the bondage of sin when the kingdom is established (chaps. 60; 66: 17ff.) (p. 25).

Isaiah didn’t preach God’s judgment with glee. “Isaiah was a man who loved his nation. The phrase ‘my people’ is used at least twenty-six times in his book” (p. 16). He also “interspersed messages of hope with words of judgment” (p. 19).

Isaiah for You by Tim Chester

Of course, Chester makes many of the same points and observations that Wiersbe does in Isaiah for You: Enlarging Your Vision of Who God Is. He sees Isaiah as something of “a bridge between the Old Testament and the New Testament” (Location 38).

Before, when I’ve read Isaiah, I’ve gotten a lot out of key passages like chapters 9 and 40 and 53, but I’ve gotten a little lost in some of the details in-between. I found Chester’s short chapter summaries to be very helpful in keeping the narrative and timeline of Isaiah in view.

Chester perhaps emphasizes application a little more than Wiersbe does, though Wiersbe brought out a lot of application as well. One point Chester brings out repeatedly is how these truths in Isaiah should inspire evangelism. God’s ministry with Israel was meant to be a light to other nations as well as their own, and the coming kingdom is one that will include every nation, tribe, and tongue.

They were to live under God’s rule expressed in the law in such a way that the nations would see that it is good to know God (Deuteronomy 4: 5-8). Isaiah himself uses this kind of language in Isaiah 2: 2-5: “Come, descendants of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the Lord.” Why? So that “many peoples will come and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord’”. The people of Israel were to attract the nations to God (Location 2321).

Chester also brings many parallels that I hadn’t previously seen before between the exodus of Israel from Egypt and our salvation. He includes Israel’s release from Babylonian captivity as another kind of exodus.

Isaiah doesn’t just deal with Israel’s problems current at the time. He tells them some of what’s coming in their future as well as ours.

And Isaiah lifts us out of the cares of this life to point us towards God and His glory.

And here is a glory that we do not have to earn or create or build. It is the glory of God, and he shares it with us. All we need to do is look! We simply contemplate God’s glory, and, as we contemplate it, we are glorified. So where do we look? God’s word continues: “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ” (2 Corinthians 4: 6). We look into the face of Christ. That is where you will see the glory of God, and that is the look that will transform you (Location 1001).

There’s so much more that could be shared, both from Isaiah and these two books. Let me encourage you not to be afraid of reading Isaiah. It provides a rich study, and both of these resources help us understand it.