ONE THOUSAND GIFTS (Voskamp): Part 6

PART 6: Devotions 51-60

ONE THOUSAND GIFTS:
A Devotional Finding Everyday Graces

Ann Voskamp (Zondervan, 2012)

WEDNESDAY, November 5  Re-Membering Grace

Luke 17:18 MSG

Jesus said, ‘Were not ten healed?  Where are the nine?  Can none be found to come back and give glory to God except this outsider?’  Then he said to him, ‘Get up.  On your way.  Your faith has healed and saved you.’

• This fallen world never stops dis-membering who we are.  We’re all breaking a bit more every day, even in small ways.
• But when we remember how He blesses, loves us, when we recollect His goodness to us, we heal – we re-member.

            Some days, some lives, seem like an ever-flowing parade of despair: illness, job loss, broken relationships.  How in the world can one stop and say thank you in the midst of it?  Yet it is that very act that can begin the act of healing.  ‘Thank you, God, for the medicine that keeps me alive this day for my family.’  ‘Thank you, God, for this opportunity to explore new employment.’  Thank you, God.  Nothing goes to waste.  All the broken pieces will be re-membered into the whole once again.  

            I continue now to weave my thanks into my daily prayers.  I BEGIN with them.  Abundant gifts of pumpkin, ability to bake to share, Jed's journal submitted, Letter from Swansons, Lectionary group, Pink tint to storm clouds, Unknown melon revealed to be a honeydew!.....Thank you, God.  

THURSDAY, November 6  Storm Grace

Hebrews 12:28

Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe. 

• Neglecting to give thanks only deepens the wound of the world.  What of faith in a God who wastes nothing and makes all into grace?
• To thank God in all is to bend the knee in allegiance to God, who alone knows all. 
• That which I refuse to thank Christ for, I refuse to believe Christ can redeem.

        Today I realized that I have listed nearly 300 God-Grace-Gifts so far, and probably not one of them is thanking God for something I perceive as ‘bad’. Do I not believe God is present in these issues, these unrecognizable blessings?  God can work through the garbage and bring good from it.  I need to include thanks for such in my list so God can start the process of transformation. 

        So….Thank you, God, for Mom’s health problems.  They have started our family on a path to reconciliation.  Thank you, God, for my brother's addiction.  It is helping me realize my weight problem carries similar traits.  I can’t ask Mac to be strong and resist when I am not and can not.   Thank you, God, for the trials you set before me.  From garbage to grace…..

FRIDAY, November 7  Breathing Grace

Psalm 30:5  BBE

….in his grace there is life; weeping may be for a night, but joy comes in the morning.

• Fear is banished in this present moment when the presence of I AM fills it. 
• When you are weak, take a deep breath.  Breathe.  Say His name.  Say YES to God. Eucharisteo.
• Black notes make music too. 

    In the dark notes of our days, music can be found.  We simply must open our ears and our hearts to listen.  When fear stops us in our tracks and the world suddenly seems silent, may we listen carefully.  There is music in the black notes.  There is music in our pain, and that melody can carry us over the fear, over the discord, into the joy of gratitude and thank-giving.  Take a deep breath and listen, listen to the melody of the world.  God is singing to us. 

Jed had black notes thrown at him last spring in regard to his PhD.  Disappointment and despair.  But God was composing the music all along – a better dissertation in the long run.  Completed yesterday.  Grace at work.  

SATURDAY, November 8  Amaryllis Grace

Isaiah 14:24  GNT

What I have planned will happen. What I have determined to do will be done.

• The daily practice of the discipline of gratitude is the way to daily practice the delight of God. 
• Plant the truth in me: there are gifts worth counting to one thousand for, gifts that will emerge out of the deathly dark.  Unfurl amaryllis grace today.

“Joy is the gigantic secret of the Christian.”  (GK Chesterman)

            I find it amazing that today is amaryllis grace: grace that comes after the dark of death, beauty from a bulb left dormant for a long time.  Several beloved Baker figures passed away this week.  Funerals are coming up, opportunities to celebrate life in the wake of loss.  Two are for men who died too soon – in their 50’s.  ‘Not fair’ we think.  But buried beneath the tomb-dark comes resurrection.  May we give thanks for that.  This reminds me somewhat of the bulb analogy for life-death-heaven I read previously.  God has the joy of the blossom awaiting us.  It can be in this life on a different level if we practice gratitude.  Look for the flowers blooming today.  

SUNDAY, November 9  Happiest Grace

Romans 5:15 GNT

It is true that many people died because of the sin of that one man [Adam]. But God's grace is much greater, and so is his free gift to so many people through the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ.

• You can’t earn God’s love.  You can only turn toward God’s love.
• Holy joy lies in the habit of murmuring thanks to God for the smallest of graces.
• Happiness is not getting something but being given to Someone, Christ.

            Each time we utter our thanks, our acknowledgement of a moment of God grace, we have turned ourselves once more to God, to God’s love.  We have unwrapped another part of the gift of God love’s.  This isn’t a package we open in one moment, one day, but in a lifetime of thanks.  This package may come in the tiniest of boxes or in unwrap-able size.   Surely receiving free gifts always make us happy!  Surely our parents taught us to say thank you!  Over and over again!

MONDAY, November 10  Comforting Grace

Isaiah 49:13 

Shout for joy, you heavens; rejoice, you earth;

            Burst into song, you mountains!

For the Lord comforts his people

and will have compassion on his afflicted ones.

• When God moves us out of our comfort zone – into places that are way bigger than us, places that are difficult, hard, painful, places that even hurt – this is a gift.
• The greatest gift we can ever receive is the gift of losing our earthly security and comfort….so we can unwrap the intimacy of the Savior and his heavenly comfort.
• Those who fully live, who live ecstatic lives of joy, embrace moving out of comfort zones.  Ecstatic joy is found outside of static comfort zones.  Because it’s moving out to where the Spirit moves.  Like the wind, the Spirit always moves.

            It seems impossible to consider death, divorce, poverty, loss as a GIFT from God.  But for those of us in our secure, safe, comfortable western culture, it takes something drastic for us to realize our need to depend on God.  It takes shifting us out of the comfort zone of independence.  Christianity is strongest right now in those countries and cultures where suffering is rampant.  Faith is sometimes all the people have and they are able to make it a joyful experience.

            I love the Spirit analogy.  The Spirit-Wind is always on the move, shifting and changes.  So must we as we allow that Spirit to infiltrate our lives.  Give thanks for the uncomfortable.  There is comfort to be found within it from a compassionate God who seeks what is best for each one of us.  

TUESDAY, November 11  Cycling Grace

Isaiah 6:3

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.

• It’s the astonishing truth that while I serve Christ,  it is He who serves me….that I never need serve in my own strength.
• It’s the fundamental, lavish, radical nature of the upside-down economy of God: empty in order to fill.

            We are back to the Multiplying-Backwards-Math of God.  The more we give, the more we get; the more we serve, the more we are served.  It’s how God operates.  The pot must empty before it can be refilled to overflowing.

            The key is the repayment plan.  We don’t necessarily get back what we gave, only more – we receive in return what we NEED in abundance.  Such God currency may take the form of joy, contentment, a deeper relationship or awareness.  God knows best what to give back.  It can be an ever-spinning cycle of grace.  

WEDNESDAY, November 12  Wearing Grace

Zephaniah 3:17 MSG & VOICE

Your God is present among you,
    the champion who will rescue you.
Happy to have you back, he’ll calm you with his love
    and delight you with his songs.

• What if we wanted to BE beautiful more than we wanted to BUY beautiful?
• Happiness and healing is in the opening of a hand…

            What if we WORE grace?  What if we wore the love of God as a garment that defined who we are and what matters to us?  What if we made that conscious choice day in and day out?  Choose love.  Choose to radiate God’s grace.  Indeed, a God who is so present in our lives that we can’t help but bubble over with that love in happiness and joy.  

THURSDAY, November 13  Trumpeting Grace

1 Chronicles 16:10-12 MSG

Thank God! Call out his Name!
    Tell the whole world who he is and what he’s done!
Sing to him! Play songs for him!
    Broadcast all his wonders!
Revel in his holy Name,
    God-seekers, be jubilant!        

• ‘Honk if you’re happy’ is really, ‘To be happy, honk’.
• ‘Give thanks if you are joy-filled’ is really ‘To be joy-filled, give thanks’.
• If a joy-filled heart is good medicine, then giving thanks is my daily prescription.

            Which comes first, the chicken or the egg?  Which comes first, happiness or thanksgiving?  Voskamp tells the story of a man who reluctantly followed his grand-daughter’s request to honk when daily viewing a tattered sign by the road, ‘Honk if you’re happy’.  He gradually discovered the action made him look forward to a new day of honking, a moment turned to minutes and then happiness seeped into all his life.  By honking?  No, by praising and thanking. 

            This ends Voskamp’s book.  But it will not end my effort to record the God-gifts that I encounter each day.  And I will try to keep going once I reach One Thousand.  For now, can I get to 500 by year’s end!  Yes!  How can I BE a blessing 500 times over as well?  Now THAT is a holy challenge!!  

            How jubilant is my thanks?  Do I secrete my God-Grace-Gifts away in the book and never share them?  Do I trumpet my praise?  Do I begin my prayers with thanksgiving?  How often do I verbalize a ‘Thank you God’ when in the presence of others?  Hallelujah! 

FRIDAY, November 14  Becoming Grace

Genesis 12:2

I will bless you….and you will be a blessing.

• This work – the thousand endless jobs of daily life – they each give the opportunity for one to become the gift.
• The way through the pain is to reach out to others in theirs.
• God can enter into me, even me, and use these hands, these feet, to be His love, a love that goes on and on forever, endless cycle of grace.

            We are blessed to become the blessing.  Our every action can become an act of thanks when performed in such an attitude of gratitude. 

            I wondered in reading this final devotion if I do enough acknowledging of my thanks to those OTHER than God?  When I write down the name of someone who has been a blessing to me, do I share with the person?  How often do I publicly affirm other people in my life?  Verbally?  A note or card?  To become grace, to become a blessing, I must remember to bless in an active way. 

D365 LENT: Temptations

INVOCATION.....(d365.org - Grier Booker Richards)

It's a long, hard road that leads to becoming our true selves. There are so many things to distract us along the way, things that draw us towards self-absorption and destructive behavior.

The next few moments of reflection offer the opportunity to focus again, to see more clearly who God is and who we truly are meant to be.

SATURDAY, March 15  Clean Slate!
Psalm 32:1-2, 5  MSG
Count yourself lucky, how happy you must be -
You get a fresh start, your slate's wiped clean. 
Count yourself lucky - God holds nothing against you
And you're holding nothing back from him.....
I let it all out;
I said, "I'll make a clean breast of my failure to God."
Suddenly the pressure was gone - 
My guilt dissolved, my sin disappeared. 

     Lent. The season of opportunity, not dirge and gloom!  The time to take a deep breath of confession - and exhale the failures, disappointments, shortcomings and fears and inhale a clean fresh breath of the Spirit-God.  God has the Grace-eraser to wipe our slate clean IF we bring the slate to God!  
     At the sake of being redundant, I am going to re-post a poem I wrote last year on this passage from Psalms:

Lucky I am! My heart feels free! 

Happy I am!  God's forgiven me!

Blessed I am for a lightened load,

Debts forgiven, no longer owed. 

God does not tally up our sin,

If we practice not to hold within;

And pass it on to all around,

So forgiveness-love the world abound. 

Lucky I am! My slate's wiped clean

The past now lit with God-like sheen!

Rejoice with joy, kick up my heels!

Resurrection power, grace reveals.  

FRIDAY, March 14  Pi Day

Romans 5:15b  GNT
 But God's grace is much greater, and so is his free gift to so many people through the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ.
    I'm not sure if my thoughts really center on the Romans passage, but more on the Pi Day card I received from my sister.  It spoke of having 'infinite fun' today.  Infinite.  That describes God's grace.  But like pi, grace that comes in an ever-changing sequences of opportunities and ways in which grace is granted.  One number Pi, infinite numbers; one God, infinite possibilities, an infinite amount of grace. 
     Happy Birthday, Mac!  May you sense an infinite amount of God's grace in your life!   

THURSDAY, March 13   Freedom from Apples

Genesis 2:15-17 MSG

God took the Man and set him down in the Garden of Eden to work the ground and keep it in order.

 God commanded the Man, “You can eat from any tree in the garden, except from the Tree-of-Knowledge-of-Good-and-Evil. Don’t eat from it. The moment you eat from that tree, you’re dead.”

    What is it that makes us passionately desire the one thing we have been told "don't touch"?  Adam and Eve found the forbidden tree tempting, and we seem to always want what is off-limits today.  Perhaps in modern times it is more of a glass half empty rather than half full.  We aim our focus on what we don't or can't have rather than the abundance of God's grace and freedom that we do have!  

    And really, with the wealth of choice, relationship, and beauty God has given us, do we really want to 'play God' and have it all?  I don't!  God has given us the choice to appreciate all his gifts, to revel in them, to celebrate them.  He has set us free from the apples of temptation and the responsibility of being God.  Celebrate!  Look for the positive choices, the opportunities to use our gifts, the relationships we can create, all because of God's grace.  

WEDNESDAY, March 12  Angels!!

Matthew 4:11  MSG

The Test was over. The Devil left. And in his place, angels! Angels came and took care of Jesus’ needs.

The game is over, 
The battle is won.  
Rounds of scripture,
Innings of hunger, heights, and 'have-it-all'. 
Final Score?
God-Jesus 3, Devil 0. 

Jesus won hunger versus stones,
Jesus was victor over tall buildings;
Jesus stood firm in a contest of materialism and power.  
Jesus won the game.  
And we can too.  

The after-game celebration?  
ANGELS!  
Angels with food!  
Angels to satisfy and comfort!
Angels to reassure
That the victory is worth the battle.  
That God is with us.  

We play the game every day,
Our opponents are tough,
But we can be the victor also.
God is always playing with us.  
And Angels will be there to celebrate our victory.  

TUESDAY, March 11   Quick Fix

Matthew 4:8-10  GNT

Then the Devil took Jesus to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in all their greatness. 9 “All this I will give you,” the Devil said, “if you kneel down and worship me.”

10 Then Jesus answered, “Go away, Satan! The scripture says, ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve only him!’”

     Our society tempts us, 'Just do this or that' and you will have it all.  Listen to me and I'll give you the quick fix to success, power, and fulfillment.  Empty lies.  It just doesn't work that way!  
     God doesn't promise us quick fixes, a guarantee of a problem-free life or lack of struggle.  God promises to be with us, to lead us and guide us.  Christ has set the path for us to follow.  We can't be defined by our temptations, but rather by our relationship with the God who leads us through them.  

MONDAY, March 10  Temptation of Hesitation

Matthew 4:5-7 MSG

For the second test the Devil took him to the Holy City. He sat him on top of the Temple and said, “Since you are God’s Son, jump.” The Devil goaded him by quoting Psalm 91: “He has placed you in the care of angels. They will catch you so that you won’t so much as stub your toe on a stone.”

Jesus countered with another citation from Deuteronomy: “Don’t you dare test the Lord your God.”

      Perhaps one of our biggest temptations in society today is to think that we must be a superhero, able to leap from tall buildings, able to conquer all the sins of the world, able to achieve perfection - all in a single bound!  Western society especially has added that extra boost to everything, the desire for bigger, better, flashier.  And for what?  The end result may just be a society who thinks they can't make a difference because they don't have the 'power'.  

     We have the power of one - individual power granted to us from God.  I read this morning a story about a man in NJ who is making a difference one bottle of hot sauce at a time.  All profits are split between microloans in Ethiopia and a local food pantry.  His church and community have rallied around the business. One man, changed communities.  

     When we can resist the temptation to take the easy way out, the temptation of hesitation and doubt, then we can truly glorify God by our actions.  We have the power, but it comes from God and God alone.   

SUNDAY, March 9  Into the Wilderness
Matthew 4:1-4  GNT

Then the Spirit led Jesus into the desert to be tempted by the Devil.  After spending forty days and nights without food, Jesus was hungry.  Then the Devil came to him and said, “If you are God's Son, order these stones to turn into bread.”

But Jesus answered, “The scripture says, ‘Human beings cannot live on bread alone, but need every word that God speaks.’”

      Lent is time in the Wilderness.  This is an opportunity for the Spirit to lead us on our Spiritual Outward Bound experience.  A time to grow out of our comfort zone, to release bad habits, poor relationships, and negative attitudes.  Hunger, whether physical or spiritual, can open us to God at work within us.  Lent is a time to examine our relationship with God, our faith, and our fears that hold us back from truly living out that faith as God calls.  

     May I spend some time in the coming days being strengthened, fortified, and freed for the new life, the transformation and metamorphosis of Easter.  

   

BENEDICTION BLESSING.....(d365.org - Grier Booker Richards)

Go now with faith into your struggle.

Avoid distractions of the spectacular;
See beyond the illusions,
And recognize you have what you need
To move beyond guilt to freedom.

You have been claimed by grace
And are called to celebrate the life of joy..


(I have been using Scribbles from the Gospel of Luke to illustrate this section, but the scripture passages are almost identical in the two Gospel books!)