Perception vs. Reality

 

When we lived in the mountains of Western North Carolina, we often woke to foggy mornings like this one. When I would look out the front windows, or when I stood on the front porch, on mornings like this, visibility was very limited. All I could see was shades of black and white and gray.  

Even though I knew there was a world out there, I couldn’t see it. 

 

Reality was this beautiful view on the other side of the fog. But I couldn’t see it. My perception was not my reality. It looked like I was cut off from the rest of the world. And if one of those foggy days happened to be a day when the internet was down, then I really did feel isolated. Cut off from the world. Because my communication channel was cut off. Most of the time, once the reset button on the router was pushed, communication was restored and all was well.

I recently read the story of Joseph Scriven. I was not familiar with Scriven's story, but I haven't been able to get it out of my mind. Joseph Scriven was an Irish poet whose fiancée drowned the night before they were to be married. Grieving deeply, he decided to move to Canada and begin a new life there. Out of this experience and several others, he penned these words:

What a friend we have in Jesus,

All our sins and griefs to bear!

What a privilege to carry

Everything to God in prayer!

Oh, what peace we often forfeit,

Oh, what needless pain we bear,

All because we do not carry

Everything to God in prayer.

 

What's the common thread here? What ties these somewhat disparate things together?

 

Communication. And perception. What it feels like isn't always reality. Feelings aren't always reliable.

 

Some days, like those really cloudy days in the mountains, or on days when I’m spending most of my time home alone, it feels like I'm cut off from the world. But I'm not.

Joseph Scriven felt deep despair. Yet in spite of that he learned deep truths about God and about prayer.  Truths which he shared with us by writing these words we have come to know as the hymn What a Friend We Have in Jesus.

 

The reality is that, no matter the circumstances and no matter how I may feel, I can always communicate with my heavenly Father. On the clear days. On the foggy days. When the internet works. When it doesn't.  In the happy times. In the sad times. And in all the in between times. In all circumstances. About everything. About anything.  

 

The picture of fog reminds me of that this morning. It gave the illusion that I was completely cut off from the world, isolated and alone.  

 

But it's only an illusion. Perception isn't reality.

 

The reality is that I am never alone.The reality is that, regardless of circumstance, God is still God and He is still good.  And the reality is that I can communicate, through prayer, with the One who knows me best and loves me most. The same can be true for you. What a privilege! 

 

"Draw near to God and he will draw near to you."  (James 4:8 ESV)

 



A Favorite Picture. A Favorite Place. A Favorite Memory. And a Lesson Learned.

 

 

 

This is one of my favorite pictures. There we are, Al and I, just walking along with our group, yet completely oblivious to those around us. Strolling along, hand in hand, having a chat. No clue that a friend with a camera was snapping this photo.

 

It's one of my favorite pictures. And taken in one of my favorite places on earth, Jerusalem. We're just outside the Temple Mount, on the southern side. As we walk through the arches just ahead, and then make a left turn, we arrive at one of my favorite places in that favorite city, the southern steps to the Temple Mount.

 



This photo below, taken from the Mount of Olives, can put that into context for you. The walled area in the center of the photo is the Temple Mount. The Dome of the Rock is just out of the photo, to the far right just beyond the trees. The Southern Steps are there in the center, just outside the wall of the Temple Mount, just above a small clump of trees.

On each of our trips to Jerusalem, we have had opportunity to sit on those steps and worship. What precious memories I have of those times. Being in that place, very near where Peter preached on Pentecost and 3000 souls were saved (Acts 2:14-41). Hearing the Word proclaimed to us by our pastor in that same place. Praying there on those steps. Worshiping. Those are favorite memories indeed.

There's an important lesson to be learned from those Southern Steps up to the Temple Mount. You see, the interesting thing to me about these steps is that they are uneven. Some are wide, some are narrow, some are in-between. The result is that there would have been no casual skipping up the steps to worship at the Temple. The nature of the steps requires that the approach be slow and deliberate.

And therein lies the lesson. Have we become too casual in our approach to worship?  

Consider this quote from Oswald Chambers:  "If we have never had the experience of taking our casual, religious shoes off our casual, religious feet - getting rid of the excessive informality with which we approach God - it is questionable whether we have ever stood in His presence."

May we - may I - never be too casual, too hurried, in our approach to a holy God! This is the lesson of the Southern Steps.

"Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD? And who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood and has not sworn deceitfully. He shall receive a blessing from the LORD, and righteousness from the God of his salvation."  (Psalm 24:4-5 NASB)


"Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts."  (Isaiah 6:3 NASB

Originally published 2015 by www.susanssittingroom.com

Whiter Than Snow

Many of my friends love snow. Since we moved from the North Carolina mountains to the upstate of South Carolina, I have been asked many times if I miss the snow. My honest answer is, "no, I do not." But since there is snow in the forecast for the Upstate this weekend, it seems a good time to write about snow.

Snow is beautiful, but I have spent enough of my years living in very snowy places, with very cold temperatures, shoveling lots of snow. I have had enough. If I really want to see snow now, I can get out my photos and enjoy it that way!

I have a photo of my parents on my desk. One of Daddy's favorite hymns was Whiter Than Snow. The words of that old hymn say “Break down every idol, cast out every foe. Now wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.”

"Idols" to us here in 21st century America are rarely made of wood and stone. They are electronic. They are the time-stealers. They are our pride and our sense of self-importance. They are our ego. They take the form of good, rather than best, choices.

And so I am praying that the Lord will reveal anything in my life that has become an "idol" to me. Anything that takes His rightful place in my life.

I want my life to be as pure before the Lord as fresh-fallen snow.

Lord Jesus, I long to be perfectly whole;

I want Thee forever to live in my soul;

Break down every idol, cast out every foe - 

Now wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

 

Whiter than snow, yes, whiter than snow.

Now wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

 

Lord Jesus, let nothing unholy remain,

Apply Thine own blood and extract every stain;

To get this best cleansing, I all things forego -

Now wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

 

(-James L. Nicholson)

 

 

"Create in me a clean heart, and renew a right spirit within me."

(Psalm 51:10)

 

It’s A Process

By this first week of January rolled around, many - perhaps most - people have packed away Christmas for another year. And there are others - like me - for whom it’s more of a process. Something not done all in one day, but spread out over time.

I went to physical therapy this morning as I have been doing twice a week since having shoulder surgery in July 2024. The surgery was extensive, and my shoulder had not worked well for a long time, so recovery is lengthy. It’s a process. A slow, steady, moving forward.

It occurs to me today that this idea of “process” is a picture of the Christian life. Just as after shoulder surgery I didn’t jump up off the table with a fully healed shoulder, neither do we jump from the point of salvation to knowing everything there is to know. Just as a baby is not born as a fully mature adult, but grows with proper nourishment, so do we grow as we are properly nourished in our faith.

How does this process take place? It’s through the process we often referred to as discipleship. Once we have committed our lives to Christ, we have become His disciples, His followers, His students. And we get to know Him, His character, and His ways, through the Word of God. We are nourished in the Word first with milk and then with meat, as we go deeper and deeper into our study and our understanding of the Word. This is what we think of as one of the disciplines of the Christian life.

Discipline is often thought of as an ugly word. A punishment word. But when it comes to our faith, discipline is that consistent and persistent commitment to the Word, of God to prayer, and to following the command of Scripture. It’s a process.

If you are not yet committed to that process, the beginning of a new year is a very good time to start. If you are a follower of Jesus, and have not yet committed to following Him closely through the study of His Word, please reach out to me. I’ll be happy to share some tools to get you started.

And if you are not yet a follower of Jesus, please reach out about that as well. I would love to help you get to know my Savior.

“Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness.” (1 Timothy 4:7b)

Normal

The holidays are over. We have taken the Christmas decorations down. Or at least we are in the process of doing that. In most places, school is back in session. This is the week things get back to normal. Whatever that means.

Normal may mean different things to different people. What is normal for me in this season of life certainly isn't normal for young mothers of preschoolers. And normal means something completely different to me in this post-stroke season of my life than it did before.

But for those of us who belong to Jesus, there are certain things that should be normal, no matter what our season of life.

Things like love. And joy. And peace. (See Galatians 5:22 for the rest of that list.)

If you have spent much time in the Old Testament book of Ezra, you will recall Ezra has something to teach us about normal.  

"For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the LORD, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel." (Ezra 7:10 ESV)

I read that verse this morning, over and over. I thought about that verse. I pondered that verse. I prayed over that verse.  

And it occurs to me that what Ezra had set his heart to do is what should be normal for each of us who belong to Jesus.

To study. To make a diligent effort to know the Word of God, what it says and what it means.

To do. To obey God's law. To do what God expects of us.

To teach. To be talking about the things of God, sharing them with others, leading others to join us in being obedient to God.

If that isn't our normal, perhaps we need to ask ourselves why it isn't.


What have you set your heart on today? Something to think about.


"I will meditate on Your precepts and regard Your ways. I shall delight in Your statutes; I shall not forget your word." (Psalm 119:15-16 NASB) 

Thoughts on a New Year

 

It's that time again! A new year. Time to take the old calendar off the wall and hang a fresh new one. Time for fresh clean pages the planner. It's time for a fresh start.

I don't know about you, but it seems to me this last year just flew by! Maybe it's a sign of getting older, but I can sometimes hardly believe how quickly time passes. Yet here we are again at the beginning of another year, and it's that time again - time for New Year's Resolutions. You know what I mean. We have convinced ourselves we need to make those ridiculous promises, the ones we make every year but never keep. Things like "I will lose 50 pounds by Friday" or "I will never allow anything chocolate to pass my lips ever again", or some other equally unattainable promise that will be broken before a week has passed.

Have you ever noticed how resolutions are often vague? I need to do better. I need to lose some weight. I need to spend less money. I need to read my Bible more. With all that vagueness, how can we ever know whether or not we have actually accomplished anything?

I am not a fan of New Year's resolutions. I am, however, a fan of setting goals and then determining a way to be accountable about those goals, with benchmarks so I can periodically mark my progress. That works much better for me than those pesky soon-to-be-forgotten resolutions. One goal for this year is focusing on health and good nutrition, with a plan in place to reach my goals in those.

As we begin 2025, I've been reflecting on the past year. I’ve been doing a lot of pondering, thinking about what I learned about God this year. About ways my faith has grown. About how disciplined (or not!) I have been in my Bible study. I'm pondering what God has done in my life this last year. And, to borrow a phrase from a familiar hymn, I'm pondering anew what the Almighty can do. 

A new year brings fresh opportunities to see God at work. To grow in my faith. To "discipline [myself] for the purpose of godliness." (1 Timothy 4:7) 

What about you? Have you thought about goals and plans for the new year? Having a plan in place, especially in the area of Bible reading, helps you stay focused. If you don't have a plan, there are a number of good plans available. I encourage you to read Scripture each day. Don't limit yourself to reading a devotional book. Read directly from God's Word. Read what God has to say, not just what others have written about it.

One of my favorite devotional books over the years as been My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers. Year after year I return to this book. This year I’ve traded in my well-worn paperback copy for a brand new leather-bound copy. And year after year, as a new year begins, I am drawn to this particular passage of Scripture, the passage with which Chambers begins the year:

".....my earnest expectation and hope that I will not be put to shame in anything, but that with all boldness, Christ will even now, as always, be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death."  (Philippians 1:20 NASB

Hustle, Bustle, Hustle, Bustle, Got So Much To Do………

The title is a line I remember from a children's choir Christmas musical many, many years ago......Hustle, bustle, hustle, bustle, got so much to do!  Hustle, bustle, hustle, bustle, will I ever get through?  And on it goes.

Many are singing a version of that song during this season. There's the shopping to finish. And gifts to wrap. Groceries to buy. Plus all that baking to be done. And in between all that, there are all the regular tasks of life to deal with. It’s a busy time of year. I get a little overwhelmed when I look at my calendar with its lists if doctors appointments and physical therapy alongside all the other holiday busyness.

It's hard to think about peace on earth and silent night and all the rest in the middle of the busyness that is life during this season. 

But....in the middle of all this busyness and hustling and bustling, in the middle of all the chaos that life can be here in the 21st century.....isn't this the time we most need to step back, find a quiet place for at least a few minutes, take a deep breath, and remember.

Remember that night in Bethlehem two thousand years ago. Reflect on the events of that first noel. Rejoice that, even in the busyness of life, and even in the turmoil of our world, the One born on that night came to bring peace.  

When we let that truth wash over us, then we can be at peace even in the middle of the hustle and bustle.

"For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."  (Isaiah 9:6 ESV)

This Scripture set to music:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TN5BaOGTmGs