Archive for the ‘My Faith Zone’ Category
The World Can’t Take Away Anything the World Did Not Give
© 2011, Vicki Hinze WARNING: This is a no-edit zone…At certain times of the year, we think more about life in general and our lives specifically than at other times. We remember Christmases past, we remember many of our “firsts,” we remember those we love dearly who are no longer with us.
We recall traditions and funny events, we recall specific situations or circumstances, and we recall the glory days of the way things once were but are no more.
This year, many of us are in a mess. We’ve lost our jobs, our homes, the lives and lifestyles we worked hard to build. We also face an uncertain future. For many, this is an era of times that try men’s souls—and women’s and children’s souls, too.
But we know from experience that circumstances change, eras come and go, and our present will soon become part of our past. Our future is yet to be determined, and yet when we’re mired in muck, we have a hard time remembering that we are the masters of that destiny.
We get caught up in the ways of the world, following the hierarchy of needs, and forget that the planning and preparing we do today go a long way toward manifesting the future we have tomorrow. We forget that while attitude won’t fill an empty belly or put shelter over a head, it will create a circumstance where we can fill our bellies and shelter our heads. Attitude matters.
When we’re soaring and things are going well, we don’t often stop to think about our basic needs. But when those basic needs are threatened or taken or lost, we think about little else.
It is in the troubled times that we have the greatest opportunities. We can hit the reset button without fear of losing much—it’s already gone. We can dare to take risks, to follow a dream, to consider ourselves positioned for a grand adventure. We can start fresh. Maybe the life we created was comfortable but unfulfilling. Maybe we felt more like we were stuck on a treadmill or in a mouse’s maze but thought we had too much to lose to suffer the discomforts of starting over fresh in something that to us represents the brass ring.
There is no one brass ring. Ten people have ten brass rings. It’s unique and individual to each of us, just as our own definition of success is unique to us. That is a blessing because it takes us all, it takes all our brass rings to create the whole we all enjoy.
When the world takes things away, remember that what it takes is limited. The world can’t take what it doesn’t give. It can’t take what is yours by right, endowed on you by your Creator.
The ways of the world are not God’s ways. We’re told it, reminded of it, and if we imprint it on our hearts, we’ll have the tools we need to come out of crisis. When bad things happen, we blame fate, blame others, blame entities. But the truth is, that while others and entities might have contributed to our challenges, we embraced them.
We bought the home that stretched our budget, maxed out the credit card on things we couldn’t afford, elected to stay laid off for the maximum time we drew unemployment benefits. Maybe we weren’t totally aware of the path to destruction we were walking, but we did choose to walk it. We didn’t realize that by drawing those benefits so long we’d render ourselves unmarketable and need new skills. That the interest on that credit card would soar and grow to a seemingly bottomless pit.
Perhaps others weren’t as forthright as they could have been, but we were active participants and since this is our life, we are ultimately responsible for it. It isn’t fate or others or entities who suffer the consequences. It is us. And therefore, we learn that in all endeavors, before we participate, we should ask ourselves if things go well or wrong, who suffers the greatest consequences.
If we’re in a tough spot, and so many of us are, we realize that simple truth now, and we’re struggling to find a way to a better future. But before we focus on that future, we should focus on our present. On the things that remain when the world has taken all it can take from us.
What do we have left?
We have Life. Where there is life, there is hope. That didn’t get to be a common saying for the sake of itself but because it is true. Life carries hope because so long life exists, change is possible. We can change. We can start over, start fresh, begin again.
We have Faith. God rejoices with us when we make wise choices, and weeps with and carries us when we make bad choices. He never abandons us, even if we have ignored Him for years—or forever. He eagerly awaits us turning to Him and longs for us to return to Him. When we walk with God, we might falter, but He does not. He guides our path and is with us even when we deny Him. He remains. In good or bad times, or times when we’re so mired and lost we don’t even know what to ask for or what we need to find our way. God knows. Faith sustains us and fosters whatever we need to find our way.
We have Knowledge. Of wrongs we’ve committed, errors we’ve made, flaws in us and in others that we gave authority in our lives. And because we have knowledge, we have the chance for fresh starts—not just today, but every day. Any minute of any day we can choose to start over. Every minute, every day. We have the opportunity and the wisdom to begin again.
We have Humility. We know now we can break because we have broken. But we also know that we can survive breaking and we can heal. God specializes in healing the broken and in making crooked places straight, and He loves nothing more than us. We look back through our lives and say that He won’t bother; we’ve broken ourselves so many times before, but wisdom and knowledge dispute that. He remains forever. We can break and break and break—no matter how many times we break—He is always with us and because there is no greater love than His love for us, He is the way, the truth and the light. We can trust Him in all things, and He will always be there for us. No step we take or move we make is made without Him. Sometimes we walk in His grace, sometimes we walk in our free will choices, but He is there.
We have gratitude. Gratitude for all that remains. Gratitude for dignity, self-respect, honor, courage, bravery. Gratitude for the ability to endure and suffer and grow wiser and stronger. Gratitude for being broken, because in having done so, we know we have the ability to patch ourselves together, heal, pick ourselves up and begin again—this time, wiser and stronger and more armed with all the things we now know remain and can’t be taken away unless we choose to give them away. Gratitude for experience.
The world can’t take any of these things or many others, nor can it take our thoughts and dreams and our willingness to humble ourselves before God and men. The world can’t take any of these things because it doesn’t own them. Neither did the world bestow them on us.
These things are divine gifts, as are our special abilities and skills. Our purpose. And with divine gifts, even when we are in turmoil, we also know contentment and peace. We know trust.
If in exercising our free will, we trust God, then He directs our steps on a new path. A better path. On that leads to a life better than the one that shattered and left us broken. An everlasting life. Eternal life.
And we take that path knowing we are never alone.
That, dear friends, is grace. Grace in action. And grace is the most sacred of all the gifts bestowed on us by the Divine that the world can’t touch much less take away because the world didn’t give it. It is a gift of the heart from a loving Father and it is ours forever.
Blessings,
Vicki
CHRISTIANS AND CORRUPTION
© 2011, Vicki Hinze
WARNING: This is a no-edit zone….
The news is rife with stories on corruption right now. Investigation upon investigation is underway. Story upon story breaks of corruption—money for payback on political support, political supporters receiving special favors, including the subordination of governmental loans, congressional members purportedly cashing in via insider trading tactics—there are so many mentions and reports of corruption it’s hard to keep them all straight and even harder not to be overwhelmed and feel hopeless for the fate of our nation.
Each person has a voice and has the right and opportunity to use it to oppose corruption on a national scale. That is a freedom we enjoy and many of us exercise it. Yet corruption isn’t simply a matter of corruption on a grand scale, it is also a matter of personal corruption and responsibility and accountability. And if you’re a Christian, you have a greater responsibility to oppose it. The following verse is a guide for Christians, and also a warning:
“If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and are overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning.” –2 Peter 2:19-21
Studying that verse in the context of the bigger picture—beyond self and into family, community, then nation—we see the responsibility we all bear, but the greater accountability on corruption on believers.
Note that “escaped.” That is a precise word, selected no doubt for a specific reason. We are all vulnerable. We all face temptation. If we are disciplined enough and fortunate enough to resist—it is a choice we make—then we have escaped the challenges associated with corruption and the resulting consequences of it. How many times have we heard that the cover-up was worse than the crime? There’s a reason for that.
You don’t have one corrupt act and then that’s the end of it. No, it’s like ripples on the water and the problems associated with the original act just widen, broaden and deepen.
Before we dare to think we’re not and never have been corrupt, we need to review our actions. Ever accidentally walk out of a store with something you intended to purchase and not go back in and pay for it? Ever accept the wrong amount of change and not return it? Ever note that something got missed and didn’t appear on your bill but not mention it to the sales clerk? What about getting a reduced price on something that shouldn’t have been reduced and not telling the cashier that your bill was less than you know it should be? Ever buy something from someone, owe payments on it, and just never repay them?
But those are just money-related corruptions. What about cheating on a test? Copying someone else’s work? Taking credit for someone else’s idea? Claiming something to be true that isn’t true? Rationalizing something you’ve done to justify doing something you shouldn’t have done? All of those things, and so many more, are corruption, too.
If you don’t know Christ and you do not escape corruption, that’s bad. But if you know Christ and don’t escape corruption, that’s worse. Why?
Because you know what you’re doing is wrong and you choose to defy Christ and do that wrong thing anyway.
We can forgive a child who makes a mistake. The child is an innocent with no malicious intent and simply knows no better. We are not absolved but are required to teach the child better so that in future the child has the knowledge and wisdom to protect him/herself.
You know I’m a simple woman, so I break big concepts into bites to digest. Okay, so a simple example to illustrate what I mean.
If a child touches a hot stove, the intent isn’t to harm the stove or to take advantage of the stove. It’s far more likely that the child is simply curious. Those of us who know if the stove is hot the child will be burned have a responsibility to warn the child that the stove could be hot and s/he could be hurt so s/he shouldn’t touch it.
Simple, yes. True, yes. If we have no intent to harm (the intentions in the heart make a huge difference in our spiritual responsibility) and we do not understand the spiritual consequences of our actions, then we are not dealt with as harshly as if our intentions are malicious and we do know those spiritual consequences and we act on them anyway.
When you know Christ (are aware [accessing His wisdom and knowledge]) and what you’re doing violates, and you choose to do it anyway (intention [exercising your free will choice]), then you’re held to a higher standard and are held more accountable because you do not have the innocence of a child.
You know better and act deliberately. That makes your actions more corrupt.
I’ve been thinking about this a great deal, as I’m sure many of you have, with word of corruption being in our faces at every turn. In the grand scheme of things we have and use our voices, and that is good. But we must also, I believe, start at home, start with us.
Christ loved the church—His people—and he despised corruption. We saw His reaction to it at the Temple when he upturned tables and expressed His outrage at the moneychangers for their disrespect. They were corrupt, dishonoring God.
In every life, every day, we are tempted. We make choices. And our choices carry consequences far beyond what they might appear at first glance. We need to look deeper. To really think about our actions and reactions. To weigh the real costs of corruption in our lives.
Joel Osteen gave a sermon once that spoke of expecting the best. He talked of being our best and doing our best. Of not settling but encouraging us to continue to aspire to be our best selves. There’s much wisdom in that advice. Note that we’re not passive people in the process. We’re engaged, working at being and doing our best. We’re aspiring, planning, striving.
I believe that corruption exists in our society because we tolerate it. If we didn’t tolerate it, it would stop. That’s not idealism, that’s practical impact. If the consequences of corruption were steep, few would willingly pay them. Instead, they’d modify their behavior and make wiser choices.
The challenge is we’ve been negligent in enforcing consequences. And doesn’t that too reek of corruption?
When we neglect to enforce consequences, we suffer a kind of diminishing return effect. It’s again like a child. If s/he asks for something and you say no, then no it is. But if the child asks again and again until you say yes, then you have a diminished return on no. It doesn’t mean anything because you’ve trained the child to nag you until you give in—and experience has taught that child that you will.
In this, there is the problem but there is also the complication of the problem which is the lack of enforcement. And while it’s easy to relate the real costs of corruption in physical terms, there are far more emotional costs and more still, as Peter told us, in spiritual terms.
The answer can’t be dictated or legislated. It has to begin within. In the mind and heart of each person. We have to gather wisdom and knowledge and then choose.
I’m working through this and the more I do, the more I see that every person has a direct relationship to the problem. To do nothing is doing something.
As it seems is so often the case, the examination of the challenge begins with the individual. Striving to make wiser choices, ones that are in line with Christ’s teachings, ones that do not minimalize consequences or suppress them.
From the time I was a little girl, my folks used to repeat the “every action causes a reaction” and the one about cause and effect. I wonder if people aren’t hearing those warnings anymore. I wonder if the elders aren’t speaking them.
I spoke to a friend on this subject this morning and she said that the still small voice we hear inside warns even those who aren’t believers that right is right and wrong is wrong.
The temptation is to agree. But I agree from the point who has had a lifetime of lessons and guidance on a path of faith. To me, that’s the Holy Spirit guiding me. Communicating with God. Yet I wonder for those who don’t have a basis—far too many are strangers to God and His Word—how those people identify that still, small voice. I wonder if they do instinctively know right from wrong when so many in influential capacities have lost their way and broken with even basic ethics, morals and values.
I know we’re poorer for it. As individuals, as a society, as a nation.
But we’re not all lost or hopeless or helpless. Our nation is ill; no disputing that. But it can be healed and we’re told of the restoration that will come as a result.
In that too, we’re not passive. We have to do our part and turn away from corruption and call down those who are corrupt. We need to use our voices constructively so that we might heal and then our land.
Blessings,
Vicki
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Vicki Hinze Books Website About
THE MEANING OF THANKSGIVING is a national treasure, one that is worth recalling and reflecting on so that we don’t take it for granted or simply come to think of it as the day before Black Friday. What is offered in the day of Thanksgiving to our nation and its people is far more precious.
When we seek the truth about the holiday, there is no one better to explain it than the source, the father and first elected president of our nation.
Here, in his own words, is what President George Washington had to say about it:
“Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor – and Whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me “to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.
“Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be – That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks – for his kind care and protection of the People of this country previous to their becoming a Nation – for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his providence, which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war –for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed – for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted, for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and in general for all the great and various favors which he hath been pleased to confer upon us.
“And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions – to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually – to render our national government a blessing to all the People, by constantly being a government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed – to protect and guide all Sovereigns and Nations (especially such as have shewn kindness unto us) and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord – To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and Us – and generally to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.
“Given under my hand at the City of New York the third day of October in the year of our Lord 1789.
“G.O. WASHINGTON.”
May the traditional spirit of Thanksgiving be a blessing to you and yours. And in these times that try souls and make us weary, may we remember to hold fast to an attitude of gratitude. For all our flaws and challenges, ours is an exceptional nation. At times, we lose our way, and we forget who we are. But we have the opportunity to remember today.
My special Thanksgiving prayer is that we read the words of our founder and recall who we are and, most importantly, whose we are.
Blessings,
Vicki
Nearly ten years ago, after a horrific accident that took months of recovery and left slight permanent damage, I wrote an email to myself that contained a daily spiritual post. That was years before I started My Faith Zone and began sharing those messages with others. Between then and now, I’ve had computer crashes where I’ve lost everything and my multiple backups corrupted or failed. So I’ve lost a lot of my earlier material.
But today I opened my computer to start the day, and glanced down the left at the folders. And there I saw this post. I have no idea what glitch spared it or put it in a folder, for that matter, but I took it as a sign to share it.
EMBRACE THE SPIRIT
In reading, the verse resonating with me this morning is: “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” —2 Timothy 1:7 (NKJV)
So today, the verse I’m going to repeat throughout the day is: “You must not fear them, for the LORD your God Himself fights for you.” —Deuteronomy 3:22 NKJV)
Why is this resonating so strongly right now?
Seeking. I’m not sure, but maybe because reaching my goal took two decades. I sabotaged myself by letting fear and doubt rule me. God doesn’t work in that environment–it shows an absence of trust in Him and in faith. But I didn’t see that, so everything that could go wrong did. It wasn’t anyone else’s fault. It was mine. I was undisciplined, long on letting fear and doubt rule and short on trust and faith in Him. I missed that then, though I see it clearly now.
Not that there weren’t signs. There were plenty of them. I was just too busy to notice or worse, I noticed and ignored them.
I suppose the strongest signal–one I actually stopped long enough to really note and thought, “Mmm, this is important. I need to pay attention to this” was after Mom died and right before the fall. What I remember most about that time was despair. I was so weary of grief and feeling bad all the time and of struggling. Everything seemed to be a struggle. I stood at the breaking point, ready to give up. Not on life, but on me.
And then things got worse.
That’s always the way it happens. They say what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, and maybe it does. Grieving and despairing, I got distracted and fell down an entire flight of stairs, slammed into a wall at the bottom and hit so hard it threw me back against the stairs and I cracked my head. I thought I was going to die, and I could have. Hubby was stunned I was alive and by the look on his face, I knew I was in real trouble.
I hurt everywhere at one time. He called out to God. I couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe. My entire right side, my neck and back was on fire. Horrific pain. All of my muscles in severe spasm. I felt a rubber band type snap in my chest—a rib breaking. I lay there in a heap thinking, Breathe. You’ve got to breathe. It was awful. I’ve had surgeries that didn’t hurt as much or as intensely.
At the hospital, the problems that loomed huge earlier faded under the fear of fighting for my life, and I began praying for healing.
Fear and doubt came roaring in, insisting I would not be healed, I would die. From the level of pain they might have been right, but this time I refused to listen. For maybe the first time, I banished fear and doubt, defied boundaries and limitations imposed by reason and emotion, and I surrendered in total faith to God.
The ER doctor reviewed the x-rays. The good news, he said, was nothing had been broken. I asked if he was sure—I’d felt that rib break. He checked again and said there was a break in my rib, but it was an old one that had already healed.
I hadn’t had a broken rib before, and now I had a healed one. I also had separated the muscles from the chest wall and wrecked my right arm, wrist, hand, knee and foot. It was a miserable few months, but I went through them knowing that rib had been healed, and in His time, in His way, the rest of me would be too.
That recovery wasn’t easy, it wasn’t a snap. It was a process. But He carried me through it and fear and doubt lost its command over me. I learned to trust God. Regardless of the outcome, if my trust is in Him, the results will be of His choosing.
I learned that there are no limits for those who reject fear and doubt and trust in God. It is as is written in Matthew 19: 25-27: “Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
So today I remind myself and ask us both–you and me: When trouble comes, as it will, do I turn to God first, or as a last resort? Do I let fear and doubt rule me, or do I deliberately trust God?
I wish I could say that I do not fear or doubt. But I’m human, flawed to the core, and I do at times fear and doubt. But now I’m aware. I know that fear and doubt can be tools to help us and not just ones that sabotage or hold us back. And I know that telling the difference in healthy fear or doubt and unhealthy fear or doubt can be hard. That is, hard for me.
But I also know now that if I turn whatever it is over to God and trust Him, I’m in safe hands. He always knows the difference and always acts for our greater good.
Blessings,
Vicki
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NOTES
Before the White Rose isn’t free at Kindle anymore, but Amazon does have it discounted.
Amazon also has discounted both the paper and Kindle editions of Beyond the Misty Shore. I don’t know for how long. But one is discounted 29% and the other 35%. This was a pleasant surprise to me, and I hope it will be to you, too.
New Interview on Family Fiction.
Today it was my turn to blog at Christians Read. So I’ve done so and wanted to let you know that if you’re interested, you can read the blog post there. The URL is http://christiansread.wordpress.com.
Blessings,
Vicki
Note: If there are typos or errors, please ignore them. I wrote this, but if I read it again, I’ll never send it. So I ask for your indulgence.
Wrestling with Death
© 2011, Vicki Hinze
WARNING: This is a no-edit zone…
Fourteen years ago today, my mother died. It rocked my world.
You see, after my father passed away nine years earlier, my mother came to live with Hubby, the kids and me. We loved her being here. She had special things that she did with each of us, and her special way of doing the things she did.
She’d been sick for over six months, most of which she spent in the hospital, just before her death. Those were hard times—or so I thought. But the truth is, I hadn’t gotten to the really hard times yet. Those came after her passing.
For weeks I could still smell that hospital, sick smell on my skin. No amount of soap removes it. I felt totally out of sorts, as if I should be doing something only there was nothing left to do. I ran full-out all six months. Now, there was comforting to do, arrangements to handle, but not the 24/7 required during the hospital time. And that left chores like going through her things. Her beloved baseball caps, her suede boots in neon orange, lime green and stark purple. Her, “I’m not old. I’m a recycled teenager” sweatshirt. It was her favorite.
I couldn’t let go of anything. I’m a black and white, brown and cream, and navy kind of gal. It isn’t that I would use these things or let anyone else use them. They were such a part of her… I just couldn’t let go.
Months would pass before I could touch her books or jewelry or walk into her room and not feel totally overwhelmed at the absence of her in my daily life. Months before I could speak of her without weeping. Months before something would happen, and I’d rush to tell her only to realize at the door to her room that she was no longer there.
About a year after her passing, I recall standing upstairs at the back door to the deck looking out in total despair. The pain was still fresh, raw, and I thought, “If this is all there is, it’s not worth it.” Nothing mattered. Not really. The grief had taken over everything good and it had won.
I’d never experienced that before, and haven’t since, but at that moment, it was honest and it was real. It was the worst thing I’ve ever felt in my entire life—and it’s had a lot of competition for the spot. Bleak, dark, and not a hint of light. It was just awful.
What was worse was that I knew I had to get past that, and the sooner the better. Lingering in that state of mind will drive you mad. I don’t know if it literally does, but who wanted to hang around to find out? Problem was, I had no idea how to do it.
It was the proverbial darkest night.
Then something I still can’t explain happened.
A year or more before she got sick, my mother gave me a book. She said for me not to read it then, but later. I’d know when. I shelved the book in my upstairs office in a case against the left wall. I stood near the right wall, looking outside over the deck, feeling completely empty. Just drained of everything, too soul weary to even pray.
I turned from the door and my elbow hit something atop a little case and knocked it to the floor. It was the book. The one that had been across the room in the left bookcase.
I didn’t move the book to the little case. No one else had been upstairs in my office. No one else was even in the house. I have no idea how it moved, I only know that it wasn’t where it’d been, and yet I’d knocked it to the floor. I picked it up and an envelope had been tucked inside. My mother had written on it: “I love you.” And she’d signed it, “Mama.”
That’s significant because I called her Jen. I had for many years. Her name was Edna. But somewhere years ago, I decided she should be Jen and called her that the rest of her life. My dad used to call her Lucy. It was a family tradition.
But when I was hurt. When I was brokenhearted. When I was half out of my mind in pain, I called her Mama. Not Mom, not Mother, but Mama.
I read the book. It spoke of all I was feeling. It spoke of things I had written about, pulling on imagination but in real terms. Cellular memory? I can’t say. I wrote them having no knowledge of these things and yet here they were in this book.
Others might read it and it mean nothing to them. But to me, it was my mother reaching back to me to show me the path forward. In the space of hours, I went from numb and nothingness to something that meant everything. And once I opened to healing, Christ the Comforter stepped in.
I won’t say I healed overnight. I think losing a parent is something you don’t get over. You just learn how to cope and let yourself live.
We all know the cycle of life requires death and offers rebirth. Knowing and living it are two different things. Grief is merciless and it will shred your soul if it gets the chance. But if given the chance, Christ will carry you.
The Comforter doesn’t remove you from grief or loss or death, but He suffers through it with you. Carries you when you can’t walk, holds you while you cry, and whispers words of hope into your ear. He stays with you, supporting, loving you not just until your tears dry and hope ignites, but all the days of your life.
Mothers never stop giving. Mine passed thirteen years ago today, but her gifts, like a message scrawled on an empty envelope in book I should read later, like in the memories of all she was, remain.
Today, I celebrate her life. I still miss her. I’ll always miss her. And that’s as it should be. She was a wonderful woman. Bright, compassionate, loving. A woman who lived her faith, spent her life serving others, and defied death to reach out and comfort her daughter one last time. She’s passed, and yet she lives in me every day of my life. In my memories, in all she taught me, and in my heart.
I know that other Christians will read this and understand that my reaction to her death wasn’t exactly typical. I wasn’t comforted that she had gone home, that she would be with Christ, that she could rest with God. If she had been in pain, perhaps I would have felt those things, but she wasn’t. I felt I’d lost my mother and my daughter at once. The spiritual journey is a hard one, and often times we see things in ourselves we find lacking. The solace is that in leaving me that note, she sent me back to Christ and, even as flawed as I am, He stood waiting.
Blessings,
Vicki
WARNING: This is a no-edit zone…
We’re believers. We do believe. We praise. We pray. We appreciate God’s investing in us and in the details of our lives. We understand that His investment isn’t lip service, His love is unconditional and He wants to be involved in all of our lives—the big things and the little details.
Some spend most of their lives looking for security only to discover it doesn’t exist. But believers know it does exist—in Him, and it’s the kind of security that lasts longer than a lifetime, which on the grand scale of things is a twinkling.
I used to wonder why Christians didn’t get all bent out of shape about things going on in the world. It seemed to me they should be more verbal and involved and aggressive. There’s a part of me that still feels that way, to be honest. (Judgment in action.) But that part is tempered by the part of me that grasps they’re way ahead of me on the spiritual ladder. They’ve gotten it—that twinkling and that while life is a treasure and valuable, eternity is a lot longer and most valuable. But I digress.
What’s really on my mind today is that we petition God for many things, big and small. We do so for ourselves, our families, our friends and strangers. Often for people we haven’t seen before and never will again. Maybe it’s a look in their eyes, or a slump in their shoulder, and we gather that they feel burdened or worried or afraid. Maybe overwhelmed or under appreciated. We petition for blessings for many reasons.
What I wonder if we petition for enough is to be a blessing.
As foot soldiers, we each have the opportunity to be a blessing to others. Sometimes we seize that opportunity, sometimes we let it pass by, thinking we’re being silly or overly dramatic or maybe we’re disheartened by all the bad things we see happening around us.
It’s hard to see everything going on in the world—the corruption and hateful and just downright absurd behavior that flies in the face of all we hold dear—and not be disheartened. So we see many opportunities to be blessings to others and for any of a number of reasons, we ignore them.
One of those reasons that happens often is when we have a chance to say or do something that could be a blessing to someone else but we don’t take it because we think it’s such a small thing, it couldn’t possibly matter.
What’s a smile worth, anyway? What does saying thank you matter? Does a sincere compliment really qualify as a blessing?
It depends on the receiver. How badly do you need to see a smile? Hear a thank you? Need a compliment?
Frankly, some days any of those things are nice but not necessary. But there are times when any of the three might change an attitude or make your day. Might totally alter your perspective from one that is borderline despair to one of hope.
It depends.
One thing I’ve noticed a lot in people is that for all our technology and social networking, there are tons of people suffering acute loneliness. Not just lonely people. Acute loneliness.
Their friends are all online people they’ve never met. Their sense of community is in cyberspace. When something horrific or wonderful happens, they look around and realize there’s no one “local” with whom to mourn or celebrate.
Don’t misunderstand. Online friendships are a treasure. A cyberspace community can be a real blessing. But we need real live interaction with others and in our communities, too. We need balance.
When we don’t have it, we will inevitably suffer bouts of acute loneliness. Doubt it?
How many times have you read where someone was dead for three days or a week in their own home before anyone knew it? You can bet that person had bouts of acute loneliness.
How much do think a smile or a kind word or a few minutes of conversation would have meant to him or her?
A smile is never just a smile, and a kind word is never just a kind word. And that’s my point. Outreach is important, yes. But so are the little blessings that can totally change a person’s day or their frame of mind. Smile at someone who feels the world has forgotten them, and you’ve been a blessing.
Little things, seemingly insignificant things, aren’t insignificant and they do matter. And standing on the other side of the fence, it’s hard to tell when they most matter.
So in asking for blessings, whether for others or ourselves, it seems important to also ask to be a blessing. We don’t always know the difference we make to others, but He knows. If we’ll act when urged, no matter how silly or small a thing it seems, He will guide us and use us to show His love to others, and we’ll be more balanced. That’s a win/win situation.
Bottom line, it’s a blessing to ask to be blessed and to ask to be a blessing. There’s a special joy in doing something good for another that you never experience doing for yourself.
So today I’m asking. Let me be a blessing…
Vicki
Why Christians Should Care About Human Trafficking?
By Vicki Hinze
Author of “Deadly Ties” a novel that explores human trafficking
© 2011, Vicki HinzeDid you know that 94 percent of females forced to perform sexual acts and considered victims of human trafficking are 17 years old and younger?
Did you know 12 percent of trafficking cases are women and men forced into slavery, bondage or involuntary servitude?
Did you know victims are not just immigrants brought to the United States but U.S. citizens are exploiting an estimated 14,000 to 17,000 other U.S. citizens every year?
Those sad and staggering statistics gathered by the U.S. Department of Justice are precisely the reasons why Christians should not only care about the issue of human trafficking but care deeply.
Countries worldwide marked International Human Trafficking Awareness month during January. But my hope is that the awareness continues every day until the practice – that has become a $32 billion industry and rivals illegal drug operations – has such a bright spotlight on it that the victims find freedom and support.
Imagine being held against your will, forced into acts that are not of your choice, at odds with all you believe and it is easy to understand why there is such a staggering rate of drug abuse and suicide among victims of trafficking
In every life, a person eventually wonders, “Why am I here?” People of the Christian faith are given the answer in this conclusion to the purpose of man: “Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind.” (Ecclesiastes 12:13) (NIV)
To stand aside and watch another forced to disobey God and His commandments is a dereliction of duty and the antithesis of our principal direction. It ignores the directive of Christ that we love one another.
Victims of trafficking are wounded and broken. Christian principles in active practice demonstrate constructive alternatives. Ones that offer hope and practical tools that implemented in life can aid in healing. It isn’t a matter of saying healing is possible. It’s showing in real life situations how to cope, to adjust your mindset, to draw strength from the positive influences around you as well as faith. Faith, hope, love—all have been beaten or tortured out of victims. But if in an environment where those things thrive and are the driving force in actions and deeds, they can reemerge in victims and give them an opportunity to redefine their lives and the value of those lives.
Throughout the Bible, we see that change and progress is a two-step process. On a personal level, we must seek and then find. We must knock before the door opens. These victims, so battered and bruised and hopeless, have lost sight of that—or perhaps never had sight of that. But caring Christians living the life, walking the walk of faith, can show through their actions that if you do your part, then God will do His part. Ask and you will receive. He will not deny you.
As people of faith, we’ve had relatable experiences. We know that none are beyond His reach. And we know that at some point in time—often many times during the course of a typical life—we all need someone to light up a path to lead us from darkness into the light. We’ve experienced the majesty of faith: incidents that defy explanation, solutions to problems where there simply were no solutions. We’ve seen those lost find Him and find their way.
Yet sometimes people are so broken, the darkness is absolutely void of light, and the broken just can’t see a way out of their situation. This is how I imagine trafficking victims. Held against their will, forced to act in ways they oppose, beaten and broken at the slightest assertion of any opposition, any assertion of their own will. Quickly they learn to survive requires doing what they’re told, when they’re told, in the way they’re told. Hope dies. Darkness envelops them. They’re lost.
Unless someone lights that path, and shows them a path exists that can lead them out of that darkness, they stay lost. Their purpose, their potential will go unfulfilled. As will their opportunity to do their duty to mankind.
Knowing this, knowing our own responsibilities and duties, as Christians how can we not care about these victims? How can we not care about human trafficking? *
*This article was first published by Baptist Standard on February 3, 2011.
Learn more about Human Trafficking.
WARNING: This is a no-edit zone…
Called to Serve? Bottom Line: Trust God
©2011, Vicki Hinze
Many believers feel called to serve and answer that call only to then feel displaced among others in their field or area of expertise. They have no qualms with others in their sphere also called to serve. They have close friends and wonderful relationships with many in that sphere. But still they feel they don’t quite fit. Or, more specifically, that their contributions—the means through which they serve—don’t quite fit.
Some don’t feel embraced by the community they seek to serve. Some love but feel slightly out of step with the community. And some feel their service fits the mold or established template . . . and yet it doesn’t.
Their reactions to this sense of belonging but not belonging, or of being on the fringe, vary. But it’s typical for these servants to suffer bouts of insecurity, of feeling as if they’re failing—not just those they intend to serve, but failing their Lord, which is far more disturbing to them—and their esteem and sense of worth feels hammered.
This leads to servants questioning themselves about their path. Well, first to doubting it. Had they interpreted their calling correctly? Are they doing what they’re supposed to be doing? The way they’re supposed to be doing it? Is the rough road they are on a sign that they goofed and they’re not on the right path at all?
All these things and more in which the servant feels a sincere lack of certainty seep in and take hold, and before the servant knows it, seeds of fear and doubt sprout and grow into full-fledge mounds.
That really clutters up their thoughts and that clutter feeds the uncertainty until the mound becomes a mountain.
Here’s the thing. All that clutter and scrub brush grows like crazy and wraps like vines on a tree until the trunk of the tree is obscured. That trunk is truth. The truth founded in faith.
Evil wears many faces and uses many methods to counter good. We all know it, but we also need to remember it. Evil also attacks us where we’re most vulnerable, and how much more vulnerable can a believer be than in a profound desire not to fail God? So the more we fear and doubt, the more power we give to evil and, boy, will he use it against us.
There’s a key reason this is so. Evil has a strategy. If we’re tied up in knots and consumed by fear and doubt, we’re playing pretzel, and when we’re busy being a pretzel, we’re not busy serving. Evil wins. If good isn’t there to counter it, evil wins by default.
But servants aren’t doomed to be pretzels or helpless victims in this unless they fail to recognize, acknowledge and address what is happening. If servants do those things, they recognize that they can counter.
With what?
A mustard seed’s worth of courage—that’s all it takes to turn things around.
Courage for what?
To pick up a machete.
A machete. Huh?
When you pick up a machete and cut through the vines concealing and choking the trunk, you remove that which binds the trunk. When the trunk is unbound and exposed, the truth is unbound and exposed. You can see the truth because it’s revealed.
When the truth is revealed, what happens? Clarity.
A few points I think are noteworthy:
- 1. Picking up that machete is trusting God. He knows you. He knows your heart and everything else about you. Nothing is hidden. And He chose you for service. Imperfect, flawed, scarred, battered and/or soul-weary, He chose you. If you’re on the fringe, He knows it. If you or your service doesn’t quite fit an established mold, He knows that, too. If you are walking in faith, in His path and will and not your own, being where you are, doing what you’re doing might not be comfortable, but it’s not a mistake. Bottom line: Trust God.
- 2. If you aren’t on the right path, or you’re not sure you’re on the right path, ask Him to make that clear. Ask Him for signs you can’t miss or misinterpret and believe you’ll receive them. Ask for guidance to the right path and believe you’ll get it. Here’s a tip: You will. It’s blatantly stated, not up for debate, and couldn’t be more clear than it is in Matthew 21: 21-23: “And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.” Either you believe in His Word or you don’t. Bottom line: Trust God.
- 3. Evil loses its power. It can’t trick, deceive, clutter or muddle your mind. It can’t stand up to truth. God promised to be with you always. He promised never to leave or forsake you. If anyone’s not been home or been left in the hall, it isn’t you. You left Him. So reconnect. Evil will flee. Bottom line: Trust God.
- 4. With a clear mind, you reassess and grasp this gem of truth: There are no molds. There are man-defined similarities, traditions, general commonalities and preferences, but God made each of us universal (in spirit) and unique as individuals. That’s an important distinction. The Word tells us we are fashioned by His hand. We are as He made us, with the gifts and abilities He gave us. We choose whether or not to use them and whether or not we use them as He wishes or we wish, but they’re there. So if we’ve chosen His wishes, we’re following His will, and we still feel we must be like others or fit some other mold, isn’t that a backhanded way of saying God messed up? And isn’t that insulting Him and expressing a lack of gratitude and a lack of faith? Isn’t that counter to the bottom line, which is: Trust God.
You know, I’m a simple woman and not some highly skilled theologian. But that doesn’t mean my purpose is less valuable or less valued than anyone else’s. Neither is yours. God infuses us all and uses us all in ways of His choosing. We sometimes get so mired down in minutia that we forget that.
We can get too mired down to notice or recall or discover many facets that truth reveals. That’s worth remembering, too. Not just on the “God giving to us” end, but on the “us giving to God” end. He doesn’t need us. He wants us. He respects our free will and delights in our desire to connect with Him and serve Him, and in our willingness to serve Him by serving others. That’s significant because we’re all different. Why is that so significant?
Because being different, we see and react to different things in different ways. God made us so. That means human beings aren’t one-size fits all. We need different approaches, different methods and different means. Something that touches one person will not touch another. Something that touches that second person won’t touch a third.
God comes to each of us in ways we understand. As different people who are in different places with different attitudes and different perspectives standing on different rungs of our own personal spiritual ladders, doesn’t it make sense that He would call servants capable of touching those He wants touched in ways they understand and grasp what He wants understood and grasped?
And doesn’t it make sense that He’d match servants and serving?
We question, and that’s a good thing so long as it is constructive. But when we fret and worry and fear and doubt, that ceases to be good, it becomes destructive and that destroys momentum.
I look back over this post and realize that it’s been a circuitous route leading back to a place that could have made this a two-word post.
Trust God.
But I hope that there’s been value in the journey and that whatever fears and doubts you’ve been experiencing, it’s helped bring a little clarity or triggered something in you that brings you clarity. I hope that when you reach the bottom line, it’ll be the simple and elegant bottom line:
Trust God.
Blessings,
Vicki
This weekend, I attended my littlest angel’s third birthday party. The princess theme was evident everywhere, and all the children came dressed in costume including tiaras or crowns. It was a wonderful party, and the children were adorable–and fascinating. Their actions and reactions brought to mind a simple fact. We are all sons and daughters of the King.
We forget it at times, ignore it at times, and certainly we experience times that we don’t feel much like princes and princesses. But how we feel, what we’re experiencing or facing, does not alter the fact that we are who we are.
As children of the King, we are princes and princesses. And, from my observations, those who are reminded, conduct themselves a bit differently. Not just kinder and gentler, not just more decisive and solution-oriented, but it’s as if there’s a perspective shift. The observations made aren’t solely from a “how does this impact me” point of view. They’re from a “how does this impact” point of view. It’s a significant shift.
We look at the bigger picture. We seek the impact on others and ourselves. We become better stewards and seek to serve above being served. We grasp that we are examples, role models, that we’re the King’s examples, and others notice how we conduct ourselves and it helps set standards in others’ minds on how they should conduct themselves. We lead not because we oppress or seek to subdue or subvert others but because others turn to us based on their perceptions of us.
If a person is known for being caring, compassionate, honest and fair and concerned for others’ well being as well as their own, and another is not known for exhibiting those traits or attributes, which of them would you turn or look to for guidance in a crisis or dilemma?
The answer is obvious. And so the purpose of this post is to remind us all that we are the sons and daughters of the King. We are princes and princesses. Not pretend ones. Not fleeting ones that depend on anything that can pass away. Eternal ones. And when we remember it, others become aware of it too. Not by our speech, but by our actions.
So recognizing that we’re royalty, the question then becomes, “Are you a good prince or princess, or a bad one?” Will you be a son or daughter who makes your King’s heart glad? Will you remember who you are and conduct yourself accordingly? Or will you turn from who and what you are?
It is a choice. Because always with privilege comes responsibility.
Blessings,
Vicki
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