“We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
I hear the voices, they are up to their usual tricks saying things like, “This won’t work, it never does.” Or “Who do you think you are that they would want to be friends with you.” Now they are not things other people have said to me. Instead they are things I have said to me- those and many other things like that.
God’s word tells us to take every thought captive. It also tells us in Philippians 4:8 to think on whatever is true, whatever is noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent or praiseworthy to think of these things. Wow. Most of my thought don’t pass that test! But yet I have a hard time dismissing them just Iike that. “This won’t work, it never does,” is that true? Nope! Out on the first try! “Who do you think you are that they would want to be friends with you,” is that a noble thought? Nope again! Yet we still let those voices talk.
But what if we truly take every thought captive? What if as soon as we have a thought like one of the aforementioned we hold it up to the scrutiny of scripture before letting it wear deep groves into the tracks of our minds that then continue to play over and over and over again. How much happier we would be! How much self loathing we would skip! It always amazes me how happy and content we would be if we would simply heed God’s word! He didn’t create us to be miserable- He created us not to be miserable but to be happy! Why? Because seeing us happy while seeking Him makes Him happy too!
So the next time you’re tempted to continue the monologue of all the ways you’ve messed up and why you deserve to be so unhappy, stop. Take that thought captive. Hold up it to the scrutiny of Scripture and if it doesn’t pass the test- let it go.
When I was seven years old I found this beautiful art set that I wanted like nothing else. It came in a gorgeous wooden case, had graphite pencils, a few watercolors and- oil paints. Ten of them. All of them in their own perfect plastic spot that they could snap in and out of in the case. The set also included 2 canvases, palette for mixing and 2 spatulas for mixing paint colors. As you can see it was an art set like no other- at least to this seven year old mind! But it was $20! That was like a year of allowances! My birthday was far away and Christmas even further. I had to come up with some way to get that money- I wanted that art set so badly!!
A week later I found myself at church- no closer to coming up with the money and I was getting frustrated. There was an alter call and a time of prayer was called. Everyone bowed their heads, some sitting on the pew some kneeling up front at the altar. A collage of voices rose to Heaven.
At this point I had given my little life over to Christ but there was still a little bit of doubt in me. I knew God was real because of what I had been taught- not by what I had experienced. So I decided to ask God for the impossible, If he could do it I would know once and for all that He was real. I asked God to give me a way to make money for the art set- and quickly please. I went away from the church service and told no one about what I had prayed- I didn’t want my test results to get muddled!
The next morning I walked into the room where my mother was and without me even opening my mouth she told me that she had some extra chores I could do if I wanted to make some spending money. Did I ever!! Within 3 days I had earned the money for my art set. And before the week was even up, I was painting with my new oil paints.
People may argue that this was all just coincidence and that is fine- let them argue. But that was when I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that God was real, and He heard me, and He cared about me- a little 7 year old child.
1 Corinthians says, “Now we see through a glass darkly, but then we will see face to face,” KJV.
My grandmother has always had, “ugly” hands, in her words.I think back in the day when she grew up women paid more attention to their hands than we do now- or at least more than I never ever paid to mine! Regardless her hands aren’t beautiful in the traditional sense; they are spotted with age, her fingers are a little knobby and her veins stand out on the back of her hands. She always said her veins are so large because of how she always had to milk cows growing up, I think heredity plays a bigger role but of course I never mentioned it. Still she always gets a hint of pride in her voice when she mentions how her father used to praise those ugly hands for their good milking abilities.
My hands aren’t the prettiest either, but they know how to do a lot of things and the work I do with my hands puts bread on the table so I have never despised how my hands look. I always think back to the part in, Little Women, when when their father comes home from war and praises Meg’s hands, that though they are no longer soft and smooth, they have worked hard and become calloused through helping her family during a difficult time.
One day when I was visiting with Grandma she looked down and mentioned her ugly hands. This caused me to look down at my hands and realize that my hands were not looking too gorgeous at the moment either. “Grandma, my hands are the same way- look.” I said placing my hand in hers, “Golly, they are aren’t they,” she said before catching herself and apologizing and her inadvertent insult of my own hands!
I chuckled to myself on my drive home that day. But it did cause me to sit and think for a moment. She always viewed her hands as ugly, I always viewed our hands as strong, and hard working; hers even more so than mine. Think of all the things those hands know how to do; milking cows, sewing, baking, cooking! She is one of the best seamstresses, really. She had a business for a while before deciding that she much preferred sewing just for family. My grandfather did not have a shirt or suit jacket that my grandma didn’t make. She is a great cook and baker and has always made the best peanut brittle! To me her hands are not ugly because I know the beauty they have brought to this world. So much of reality is our perception. To me her hands are lovely, but it’s all a matter of how we view the world, and what lens we use as our filter. 1 Corinthians says, “Now we see through a glass darkly, but then we will see face to face,” KJV. What are we looking at in this world through a dark glass? What things that God has blessed us with do we choose to view as an inconvenience rather than a blessing in the first place? What a reminder to view everything through the lens of God’s Word, for it is the only true lens.
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We moved into our new house. A cute little ranch style house, complete with an octagonal wooden structure encircling a fire pit. The wooden posts stood out of the ground, with another wooden post laid horizontally over it and then wooden seats hung from the top one and hanging down between the other two posts. Growing up each post was a lovely vining plant with a cute little orange bloom known as trumpet vine because, well, it looks like a trumpet!
We were delighted with our lovely fire pit area, especially with the trumpet vine in all its blossoming glory. That is, until we started seeing shoots of trumpet vine way over on the other side of our house, completely separate from the fire pit area. We mowed it over and did not think much of it. Then I started seeing shoots coming up between the boards on our front porch…and sticking to the side of our house….and trying to climb underneath our siding… That vine was no longer pretty! The next spring we hacked down all the remaining trumpet vine, spraying the stumps of the vine with weed killer. It mostly worked, new growth still sprang from the edges of the stump that hadn’t been sprayed, and we looked out before mowing to our grass….and standing twice as tall above our grass, we saw new shoots of the trumpet vine.
The battle against our trumpet vine is still ongoing, we are slowly making progress. But it never ceases to amaze me how throughout the natural world God has sprinkled metaphors for the spiritual world as well. Our sin if left unchecked manifests itself in our hearts, spreading and taking over faster than any good traits do. We think it’s ok because we are the only ones that know it is there. However, if left unchecked we start to see signs of the sin popping up in unexpected ways- why did we snap at our coworker? Was it really because we are still bitter over a similar situation at our last job? We can hide the sin, pretend it’s not there, only to have something happen, and then we realize that the sin we thought we had pruned back, safely out of sight from the world, has sprung up anew in a place we least suspected. Instead it needs to be pulled out of lives by the root- a job only God can do.
We think we have killed off all the trumpet vine and then we see a new shoot trying to take over and strangle the life out of plants and shrubs that we want very much to survive! So we go again and try to eradicate any trumpet vine that is still lurking about in our yard. I am so sick of spraying and fighting with the trumpet vine. How glad I am that God does not tire of pruning the sin in my life. Does He grow weary and say to me as I do the trumpet vine, “You again? I thought we just went through this!” No, He gently and patiently shapes me and molds me so little by little I start to resemble more and more of Him and His nature.
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
Psalm 139:13
“I knit you together in your mother’s womb.” I have always loved the phraseology of this verse; the idea of being knit together, woven together intricately. I have tried my hand at knitting only enough to realize how complicated it actually is. How knowledgeable a good knitter must be to turn that unruly ball of yarn into something of substance and value; a beautiful wrap, a functional hat, or cozy mittens. Beyond the myriad of stitches, there is also needle size, yarn type, and the amount of tension held on the yarn that all play a part in the finished piece, any inconsistency will affect the desired outcome. How intimately connected the knitter and yarn becomes in the process.
How exquisite that we start our lives just as intertwined with God, being pieced together, slowly taking the shape of the person magnificently stitched together by His hand, that God has envisioned for us to be since the world began. To fill a hole in this world that is us shaped- no one else can fill it.
My one friend has a child, the rest of us talk about the children we will have eventually- our someday children. Little babies that will turn into children, then kids, teenagers, then full fledge adults. People. Individuals that came from within our own bodies but are wholly and beautifully their own. We don’t know if they will be doctors or teachers, lawyers or mechanics, politicians or retail workers. They will be their own people. Living their own lives. Created by God, stitched together to do His work; if they submit their lives to Him. Filling a spot in the world that no one else can.
As the world began God already had figured out the part we would play in it- where he would drop us into history. He knew every detail about us; hair color, eye color, and quirks in our personalities. He loved us from the very beginning. Even more than my friend loves her new baby. Even more than we can comprehend. We are loved, meticulously designed, and put here for a purpose, on purpose. We need only submit and turn our lives over to Him to fill the niche in this life that He created us for, so very carefully, stitch by stitch, until we were at last complete.
And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?
Esther 4:14b
Imagine what it must have been like to be Esther. She is in many ways the quintessential fairy tale story. The orphan turned queen, that then saves her people from their destruction. Low in class and status, what a shock it must have been to hear the nationwide call for all eligible young women to report to the palace for a year of preparation for the beauty contest of the century- the winner will be the next queen! How exciting- until we find out that the reason the king is in need of a new wife is because he killed his last one and is sorry about that now. Whoops.
Esther dutifully packs her bags and heads to the palace. Before she leaves though, she is encouraged by her cousin, Mordeci, (the cousin that took her in and raised her), not revealing that she is a Jew. Why ever not, Esther probably had no idea, but Mordeci did work at the palace and he provided for her and loved her so she listened to him and did as he asked.
Imagine the anxiety and anticipation she felt when at last that long year is over and the time comes for her to walk before the king. Maybe at this point she was annoyed- a whole year of her life gone- what really are the chances she will be picked?
But then the impossible happens and the orphan becomes queen. The best of the best at her disposal, a staff to wait on her every need everything seemed to be going well, until she overhears a plot to kill all the Jewish people in the kingdom. Stricken Esther goes back to her cousin Mordeci and tells him of a horrible plan.
He tells her she must go to the King. Going to the King unbidden was an act that she could potentially be killed for; the King had a scepter which he could extend to anyone who appeared before him unbidden and thus save their life… But there was no guarantee that the King would do this. Mordeci tells her. That she must take this risk- that perhaps God made her for a time such as this.
How many times in our day to day lives do we get frustrated with our seemingly insignificant contributions to the world? I think of this verse when I start feeling like my day to day contributions aren’t making any impact. Most of us won’t be in as lofty of a position as Esther, but what if I get to be a Mordeci? What if I was put on this earth to be the springboard for what others need to do their life’s work? What if I am one simple sentence away from accomplishing one of the main things God put me on this earth to do?
The next time you want to throw in the towel because your day seems boring, that you can’t see any progress or purpose in your menial tasks. Stop and ask yourself; what if you were put on earth for a time such as this? What if in accomplishing the insignificant you end up accomplishing the significant? Instead of telling yourself that what you are doing doesn’t matter, stop yourself. Because it does matter. You matter.
