Month: September 2021

I thought we could use some cheer this week. 

It seems like I’ve been surrounded by sad news lately.  Maybe you have been too.  At these times we surely can use some cheer.  I’m not saying that we should not take sad situations seriously, but we cannot get sucked into the melancholy that encircles them.  We need to remain solution-minded and expect positive outcomes in our lives and in those around us.

Biblically, the words “be of good cheer” are used meaning “take comfort” or “be of good courage” or “be bold”.  For example, Jesus said, “be of good cheer” to a man who was sick of the palsy, to the woman who touched the hem of his garment, and to his disciples when they were afraid.  He could say this because he knew there would be a positive outcome.  We must have the same confidence in our lives, not only for ourselves, but also for all those we care about and pray for. 

This shows us that cheer embodies comfort and courage.  These are essential for perseverance.  And perseverance is essential when facing negative situations.  We don’t always see a positive outcome right away.  Often the solution takes time.  So it is vital that we remain confident (be of good cheer) that we will indeed receive a successful resolution for ourselves and for those we care about and pray for.  And when we have that kind of confidence, we cannot be down-hearted.

After we receive the resolution of a negative situation, we rejoice, whether it’s our own success or the victory of someone we have been praying for.  This is also cheer.  Merriam Webster defines cheer as “to rejoice”, “to utter a shout of applause or triumph”, “to make glad or happy”.  Doesn’t it make sense that cheer begins with comfort and courage and results in triumphal rejoicing?  It all fits together! 

And if we follow this through, we see that we can be cheerful in our lives no matter what circumstances we face.  If it’s a difficult time, we can have comfort and courage, and if it’s a great time, we can rejoice.  Now, I’m not naive to think that we will never be sad in our lives.  We will have broken hearts, we will see loss, we will fail.  But no matter what happens, we can still have courage.  And if we never see the resolution to our problem, we can be comforted in knowing that we’re going to heaven and all hell can’t stop us.  And boy, won’t that be a time of rejoicing!! 

Being cheerful is an attitude we can foster by putting cheerful thoughts in our minds.  Not only thoughts of comfort and courage, but also thoughts of past successes and victorious stories, and most importantly thoughts of love.  We can remind ourselves of how much God loves us.  (He always has, and He always will)  We can remember the great love that Jesus Christ showed us by being our savior.  We can think of all the people that we dearly love.  When we have these thoughts, love will abound in our hearts, and when that happens, our positive believing is energized.  And it all culminates in thankfulness. 

When we’re thankful, our eyes are open to the blessings around us.  From the tiniest sign like the gentle flutter of a butterfly’s wings to beyond-belief miracles, God is always working for us.  With His mighty strength, He fights for us.  With His wealth of resources, He provides for us.  With all the love in His heart, He cares for us. 

No matter what is staring you in the face, be of good cheer.  God is ready, willing, and able to help you overcome any adversity.  Have courage because He is in your corner ready to fight for you.  His arms are outstretched to comfort you.  And when all is said and done, He has a home prepared for you in heaven.  Knowing these things certainly gives us the ability to be full of cheer.

John 16:33

These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

Note to my readers:  Cheers!  I am expecting great things for you!  Thanks for reading.    

Many years ago on a trip to New England with my parents, we were crossing Pennsylvania on Route 80.  At that time, there was considerable construction on that highway and the state had installed rumble strips to alert traffic to it.  These strips were very aptly named as the car truly did rumble when it crossed them; and on this trip, we must have crossed one every 10 minutes for about two hundred miles!  Plus, to make matters worse, I was pregnant and carsick.  Every time I would manage to doze off to ease my symptoms, I would be awakened by the rumbling.  It was so unnerving that we finally stopped at a rest area to inquire how much further the strips continued.  We were told by the woman at the information desk that they continued until the end of PA, which was about another hundred miles.  The alternative was to drive down to the Pennsylvania Turnpike, which would have added about two hours to our trip.  After confirming that I would be able to tolerate it, my dad decided to stay on Route 80.  The couple standing next to us opted for the turnpike.  After we got back on the road, the rumble strips stopped in about 10 miles.  Apparently, the woman at the rest area was misinformed.   I always felt sorry that couple who drove so far out of their way. 

When I think about this story, it reminds me how life can be sometimes.  Life is a journey – a million ‘trips’ to a million destinations.  These are not always literal trips, but they all involve movement of some sort.  It may be movement of our bodies or of our thoughts.  It may be changing locations or changing our minds.  Sometimes these trips come off without a hitch, but sometimes there are bumps in the road, detours, or even dead ends. 

Imagine yourself on your way toward something you really want to do.  You are prepared, you are excited, you are ready to go.  You start your trip, and all is well.  Suddenly, an unanticipated problem arises (an annoyance, a hinderance, an unforeseen predicament).  You are then faced with a decision.  How are you going to handle this circumstance?  There are negative choices – freak out, get angry, quit. Or you can be solution-minded.  You must decide which direction your thoughts are going to travel. 

On the trip mentioned above, I started out being positive, “This isn’t so bad, I can handle it”.  But as the annoyance persisted, I grew more and more uncomfortable.  My thoughts traveled toward focusing on my discomfort, and I started getting cranky. I began with the best intentions of handling the situation with a positive attitude.  But since I didn’t see a resolution in a timeframe or manner that suited me, I got frustrated and slipped into a negative pool of thought, which was manifested by complaining.  Being cranky doesn’t help any situation, nor does complaining.  And frustration is a sneaky enemy. 

You know – negative thoughts really are pools – actually cesspools.  Picture a pool of filthy water in your backyard.  Normally you avoid even getting close to it, but once in a while you walk over to check it out.  The water might not look too bad, and you might think it’s ok to jump in; but if you do, you find out that it’s just a disgusting mess.  Maybe you are randomly wandering around your backyard and fall into the pool.  In either case, you soon realize that being in that pool is not where you want to be, and you must get yourself out.  When we find ourselves in a pool of negative thoughts, the way out is achieved by replacing our negative thoughts with positive ones. 

Now picture the same pool in your neighbor’s backyard.  How do you react if you see that they have fallen in?  You might see them flailing around and want to run away.  Or you might think, “that’s their problem”.  There may even be times that you do the unthinkable – and jump in with them.  But none of those are good reactions.  The best thing that we can do for someone who is in a pool of negative thoughts is throw them a rope of positive words to help them get out.  We don’t judge because we know that we’ve spent time in our own pools.  And we’re not hesitant to help because we know that we have needed help before too.

That’s a little side trip about pools, but now we’ll get back to our travels…

We cannot always prevent obstacles from getting in our way on our journeys in life.  They are usually as unforeseen as they are unwanted.  But we can decide which way our trip will proceed.  Are we going to rise above or succumb to negative pressures?   Are we going to remain optimistic or give in to pessimism?  Will we be solution-minded or get talked out of our ideals?  We may need to change the road we’re on, maybe it’s a dead end or full of potholes.  We may need to stay where we are and patiently continue to persevere.  (Along those lines, there is a saying, “this too shall pass”, which always seems to help me.)  Whatever we need to do, we must stay determined to not give up.  We can change directions, we can regroup, we can start over, but we cannot quit! 

Who would have ever guessed that there would have been 200 miles of rumble strips on the highway?  (Note to my younger readers – this was before GPS!)  But you know what?  After those stupid strips ended, the highway seemed as smooth as glass, and the rest of the trip was pleasant.  I give my dad a lot of credit for being patient through the whole ordeal.  It was one of those situations that we kept thinking, “surely this will end soon”, but it didn’t.  And then we found ourselves so far along, we couldn’t turn back.  So we had to keep moving forward despite the hinderance.  It was a real exercise in managing frustration, which I didn’t accomplish very well.

No matter where our life’s travels take us, we may run into obstructions.  It’s just the way the world works.  How we handle those impediments makes all the difference in how our trip turns out.  Jumping into the pool of negatives doesn’t help anyone.  Ignoring a problem doesn’t solve it.  Quitting NEVER works.  But things like patience, endurance, and positive expectations can turn an obstacle into a victory.

Of course, not all of our travels will meet with difficulties.  It would be hard to accomplish anything if they all did.  Smooth sailing is a good thing!  But we may take those times for granted.  Often it seems we revel in the difficult times rather than the easy ones.  We should always remember to be thankful for the easy trips.  I know that overcoming adversity is wonderfully satisfying and I certainly love to hear success stories.  But just because there didn’t appear to be an obstacle to overcome doesn’t mean that trip was not a victory. 

I learned this lesson quite a number of years ago.  A great man, affectionately known as Uncle Harry talked about a car trip from New Knoxville to Dayton Ohio.  There was a rather severe snowstorm, but the trip needed to be made.  So he and those traveling with him prayed for a safe journey.  And when they returned to New Knoxville, Uncle Harry asked a group of us if we wanted to hear about the trip.  The answer was a resounding “yes”.  He said, “We had to drive to Dayton in a snowstorm.  So we prayed for safe travels and now we’re back.”  He must have seen all our faces drop in disappointment.  So he continued, “Were you expecting me to say something like we slid on the ice for a mile, bounced off 3 cars, hit the guardrail and continued unharmed?”  (Which was exactly what I was expecting).  But he explained, “We prayed for safe travels and God answered our prayer.  We had a safe trip.  Just because there wasn’t a dramatic rescue, doesn’t mean that God wasn’t protecting us.”   

I wholeheartedly believe that God wants us to be happy and blessed.  Why wouldn’t He?  I surely want my children to be happy and blessed.  God is always ready and willing to take care of us.  But He can’t help us when we are wallowing in the sludge of negativity; because negative thoughts oppose God and therefore tie His hands.  But when we cast our cares on Him, God is able to go to work for us.  We, by ourselves cannot fix most of the problems in our lives, but God CAN.  He knows the right path through the wilderness.  He can make a way where there is no way. 

Psalm 103:5

Who [God] satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

In your travels, why not allow God to illuminate your path and lighten your load?  He can and will guide your steps, especially over the rumble strips of life.

Note to my readers:  Happy Trails!  Thanks for reading!

I’ve always liked clouds.  And I don’t think I’m alone in this.  Artists paint pictures of them, and poets and novelists write about them.  Clouds are also popular idioms for some of life’s situations.  For instance, “on cloud nine”, or “under a dark cloud”.

My favorite clouds are the cumulus clouds.  Those are the big white fluffy cotton balls that drift lazily around the blue sky changing shapes and evoking our imaginations.  When I was a kid, I used to lie on my back in the grass and imagine I saw all sorts of images in those clouds.   My second favorites are the cirrus clouds.  Those are the wispy brush strokes high in the sky.  I imagined God sweeping the sky and the cirrus clouds being the streaks from His broom.

There is something to be said for the beauty of big white clouds against the blue sky.  They seem to make the sky bluer, or the sky makes them whiter.  Whichever it is, it’s beautiful.  My husband says that clouds add interest because a cloudless sky is boring.  I would have to agree that I watch a cloud-filled sky much more than I do a cloudless one.  Although I’ve always loved the sky’s color.  Have you ever noticed that it is particularly blue in contrast to the autumn leaves? 

Clouds are also responsible for breathtaking sunrises and sunsets.  They capture the sun’s rays and disburse them through their layers to produce all the lovely colors of the sun’s appearing in the morning and disappearing in the evening.  Without clouds, sunrises and sunsets would be far less dramatic. 

One of my favorite cloud scenes is when sunbeams break through the clouds with visible rays of light that seem to stretch to the ground.  As a kid, I thought that meant God was smiling.  I still think that today.  Of course, now it’s symbolic.  But why not think about God being pleased?  That always makes me happy. 

Obviously, clouds are an integral part of the weather, and they have their ominous side.   Without clouds there would be no rain and without a gang of clouds, there would be no storms.  We could probably live without the storms, but not without the rain.  There is an account in the Old Testament where it didn’t rain in Israel for about two and a half years because of all the evil in the hearts of the king and the people.  Without rain for so long, they were in dire straits.   But when it was time, God told Elijah what he should do and then it would rain.  So after Elijah fulfilled his mission and showed God’s power to Israel, he went up to a mountain to await the rain.  He told his servant to go and look for a sign that it was coming.  And you know what his servant saw?  A cloud.  After that it says, “that the heaven was black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain.”  (1 Kings 18:45)  Can you imagine no rain for two and half years?  How welcomed those clouds must have been! 

Just like any other element of nature, the sun, clouds and blue sky during the day, and the moon and stars at night influence our emotions.  Think of how you feel on a bright sunny day with the brilliant blue sky dotted with white puffs of clouds.  Especially if you are in a wide open space where the sky seems to spread out forever, you feel spectacular.  Those days seem to warm you on the inside as much as they do on the outside.

Years ago, I worked as a cashier in a pharmacy.  I quickly noticed that on sunny days the customers were happy and on very overcast days they were not.  I would quip that if I were not able to see the weather myself, I could always tell what it was like outside by the customers’ demeanors.

Perhaps the reason that I like clouds is because of their effect on my feelings.  There is contentment in watching billowy clouds float through the sky and serenity watching the high-flying wisps.  Even the clouds bringing rain can be a refreshing cleanse to our thoughts.  And the beauty of the sky after a rainstorm when the sun breaks through the clouds is one of the most invigorating sights I know.   

Clouds can be expressive metaphors / similes for our lives.  When we’re in love, we feel like we’re floating on a cloud.  When we’re much bothered, we feel like there is a cloud hanging over our heads. There are many such comparisons. 

And I’d like to add one… “Clouds add interest because a cloudless sky is boring”, my husband’s statement made me think that our lives would be pretty boring if there were never any clouds in it.  What if your life was always cloudless?  After a while, you might forget to appreciate that or eventually find it boring.  You would have nothing to strive toward, no accomplishments to claim.  What if you never achieved the success of getting out from under a dark cloud?  Those clouds in our lives offer us opportunities to grow by facing and overcoming our challenges and by that, receiving the joy of being on cloud 9.   And then, the icing on the cake – we can use those experiences to help others. 

If dark clouds are hovering in your life right now, remember that clouds wander the sky, they are never in one place for very long.  And once they drop their rain, they dissipate.  Remind yourself also that “every cloud has a silver lining”.  With prayer and trust to God, we can rise above our troubles and see the victory that God will provide, and then rejoice in our triumph.

Note to my readers:  If you’re on cloud 9 right now – I’m rejoicing with you.  Enjoy!  Thanks for reading. 

It seems that the world is topsy-turvy right now.  It’s scary.  It’s messy.  And the future seems uncertain.  But I am reminded of a verse in the Bible…

Ecclesiastes 1:9  [NIV]

What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.

…there is nothing new under the sun.  It has all been done before.  It might have had a different face, but it has always been ‘the same stuff, different day’.  Why is that an uplifting thought?  Because since the days of Adam, the world has been topsy-turvy, and people have managed to survive.  If people have done it before, we know that we can do it again.  We can learn from the past and put that knowledge into practice so that we can turn things around in the present.  Of course, the Bible offers us valuable insights, but much can be learned from our study of history itself.

My mom lived a lot of her childhood during the Great Depression.  Her family was put out on the streets because they couldn’t pay their rent.  She had to wear shoes that were too small and hurt her feet because there was no money to buy her new ones.  But despite these and many other hardships, she still had fond memories from those years.  Her family adapted and managed to survive those bleak times to go on and live happy full lives.  Those lean years taught them to be frugal and industrious.  They learned that there was always someone less fortunate, and they shared what they could with them.  They learned to be thankful for the little things.

We all probably have heard stories of past hardships from our relatives.  My parents’ generation saw not only the Great Depression, but also WWII.  Their parents lived through WWI, which was called, “the war to end all wars”.  Did you know that there was a hurricane in Galveston, Texas in 1900 that destroyed much of the town and killed an estimated 8,000 people?  It is still considered the worst natural disaster in our country’s history.  All of these events and many more like them, although absolutely devasting, led to some kind of positive recovery. 

Look at the world’s history.  There have been hundreds of occasions of hostility and unthinkable cruelties, of abject poverty and suffering.  Slavery was commonplace in ancient cultures long before the time of Moses.  There have been natural disasters and manmade calamities over and over again.  And through all these things, mankind has managed to progress. 

I bring up these unpleasant periods to illustrate that people have been able to survive them.  They banded together and figured out how to overcome their circumstances and make things better for themselves and their families.  “What has been done before will be done again”.  We also can overcome our circumstances and make life better. 

There is something to be said for the strength of the human spirit, or survival instinct.  This is a basic ability that God instilled in man. Think about the Pilgrims that first came to our country.  They survived incredible hardships to secure their settlement in Massachusetts.   What about the day to day lives of civilians who were oppressed in occupied France during WWII?  Consider the impacts and the aftermath of natural disasters.  These kinds of occurrences can showcase the human spirit at its best.  People bond and take care of each other.  They work together for the profit of everybody.  I have to think that God is working in these situations as well, for that greatly strengthens men’s resolve.  There have always been and always will be those who selfishly use the hardships of others for their personal gain.  And they are the people who oppose the human spirit.  But even in those instances, good can succeed and with God’s help, good will succeed. 

The Bible is full of wonderful accounts of God delivering people from hardships, wars, and calamities. 

Noah is a great example. 

At the time of Noah, society was as corrupt as it has ever been.  It says in Genesis 6:5 that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.  And in verse 6, it says that God regretted that He had made man.  But the account goes on to say that Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.

Noah was the only person who believed God in his day and time.  No one else, not even his family believed.  So God worked with Noah to deliver him and his family (mercifully), and God made a covenant with Noah.  We all know the story – Noah built an ark and it rained for 40 days and 40 nights.  But think about the specifics of his task.  First of all the ark was a craft like nothing that had ever been seen or built before, and it was HUGE.  Plus, the situation for which it was being built was beyond comprehension.   Noah had to completely trust God’s instructions to accomplish this task and it took around 120 years to complete.  Consider Noah’s plight.  He was the ONLY one who believed in what he was doing.  He didn’t even have the support of his family.  And I’m sure that all those evil-thinking people around him were not kind nor helpful to him.  So for about 120 years, he labored alone in this endeavor, and probably suffered ridicule and criticism constantly.  But he persevered because God was with him, and he believed. 

Noah was 600 years old when the flood came, and he, his family and all the animals were in the ark for a little over a year.  And when they left the ark, their entire civilization and everything they had known was gone.  What must that have been like?  There is a lot we can learn from Noah’s experience.

So far in our world today, we haven’t reached the level of widespread evil thinking that took place at the time of Noah.  And it helps to remember that the evil we see now has been evidenced before.  Therefore, as God took care of Noah, He will take care of us.  We know for a certainty that we are not alone as Christian believers.  (There are millions of us who believe God and trust in Him.)  Look at what God did to take care of just ONE believer!  What will He do for all of us?  He was willing and able to do it before, He is willing and able to do it again!

When the news seems too much to bear and you have reached the end of your rope, remind yourself that there is nothing new under the sun.  The craziness surrounding us today is as crazy as it has always been.  There is nothing new about it.  Dig down deep and renew your conviction to rise above the craziness and enjoy seeing what God will do for you. 

Note to my readers:  Another key for survival is prayer.  Praying is not new.  It worked before, and it will work again.  Surround each other in prayer.  Thanks for reading.