Santa in a "Woody" car, driving through a drift of coffee beans... my nails are a combination of Christmas candles and falling snow. My beautician said that's the only way to see snow in Costa Rica! She was asking me if walking through snow felt like walking through mud. :)

High Goals

My e-mentor, Win, once challenged me to set high goals in marriage. To be honest, it was a bit embarrassing for me to try to identify any goals in marriage, let alone high ones. After thinking on this challenge for a week, I called Win back to ask if she would give me an example or two of high goals. The goal that most struck me was a simple, yet surely unattainable goal.

Eliminate selfishness.

Wow! If somehow everyone in the world might attain that goal, what would life be like?

Today I was struck by a paragraph Gary Thomas wrote in his book, Seeking the Face of God. “When we love Christ only for what He brings us, including spiritual feelings, we are loving ourselves, not loving Him, regardless of the sacrifice we think we are offering. The dark night of the soul purifies our motivation and keeps us from becoming like the crowds in the New Testament who followed Jesus, not for His teaching, but for the miraculously supplied bread.” (p. 193)

That’s worth thinking on today! Am I one of the crowd? Why do I pray? What do I pray? What is my desire today? Am I loving myself rather than loving Him? (I don’t think they are mutually exclusive, by the way!)

If This Had Not Been...

Once again, I am challenged by thoughts from Rose from Brier by Amy Carmichael. Today I was reading about a series of events that led to her fall in a pit and caused her to be bedridden with pain for months on end. If just one link in a seemingly insignificant chain or events had not happened, the accident would have been avoided. "If this had not been, this had not followed."

How often do we think about that in life? If only I had waited two minutes more... If only I had watched my step... If only... (You fill in the blank!)

Yet, God certainly does set limits to our suffering. And nurturing the "If Only" thoughts, as Carmichael puts it, "can be vinegar upon niter." (Whatever niter is!!")

Many times we can see the limits God has put on the hand of the enemy, and we rejoice in that. As we Minnesotans say, "It could have been worse." But, what if it was worse? Would that mean that prayers were not answered?

Good question. I sure don't have all the answers. "It is a petty view of our Father's love and wisdom which demands or expects an answer according to our desires, apart from His wisdom."

Spiritual Temperatures

As a nurse, I know there are several ways you can take a patient’s temperature. I’ve thought a bit on the spiritual implications of each. You might say that a “spiritual oral temperature” is measured by Ephesians 4:29. No unwholesome should word proceed from my mouth – only words which are edifying to others.

The axillary temperature might be measured by our works.

The most important temperature, though, is like what we used to measure in ICU. We had a way of taking a computerized temp of the blood as it came out of the heart. You can’t get much more accurate than that! This “core temp” is what God measures.

Sometimes we mistakenly think that our feelings are a measure of the core temp. Feelings may make our spiritual lives seem easier or more difficult, but they should be neither a measurement nor a guide in our spiritual lives.

There have been times in my life where I have persisted in prayer, even when I had no good feelings to take away from those prayer times. I think God is honored when we honestly begin our time in prayer saying, “Lord, I don’t feel Your presence. I don’t feel like praying. But, I choose to honor You by talking with you and laying my life at Your feet, whether I feel like it or not. I give these moments of prayer as a gift of “walking by faith and not by sight.” (Or, by feelings, I might add!) I trust that You will be glorified even more by this gift today than You would be if I were all excited about my prayer life.

Gary Thomas says, “Feelings are never the yardstick of truth. They will betray the truth far more often than they will confirm it.”

I think that’s the kind of core temp that God is measuring. When He takes away the blessings and the feelings – like Job, will I choose to still honor Him? That’s what it takes to be a man or woman after God’s own heart.