Karen Moore's Blog, page 13

Sometimes You Just Have to Laugh

When life gets wacky, some of us get confused. Some of us get overwhelmed and wonder what the world is coming to. A few of us might actually stop and laugh. Proverbs 17:22 declares that laughter is good medicine. You can recognize the truth of that simply by checking in with your spirit. If you never have anything to laugh about, you feel weighted down, unable to cope with the things around you. You see all the reasons to be miserable.

Maybe you remember the scene in the original Mary Poppins movie where Uncle Albert is laughing so much, he rises in his chair to the ceiling and just can’t get down. Mary Poppins comes to help him in the situation and laughter prevails, causing everyone’s spirits to rise. It may be merely a metaphor, but it serves us all well to consider if laughter could help us get beyond those things that keep us feeling blue.

You might remember the biblical story of Abraham and Sarah. They spent years praying for a baby. They lived in a culture that blamed women when they could not conceive. Sarah was miserable. They prayed. They waited. Finally, God showed up with the answer. He told them they would indeed have a child. We might think this would cause them to be over-the-top with happiness, but they were shocked, uncertain, and wondered if this could be true.  Why?  Because Sarah was 90 years old, and Abraham was 100. Apparently, biology or ticking clocks didn’t bother the plans God had for them. They both laughed at the thought, but sure enough, a few months later little Isaac was born. His name means laughter.

It strikes me that maybe we need to let God be God, not assume we have all the answers ourselves, and let Him act in our lives. Only He can move past the boundaries of logic and science. Only He can give us incredible reasons to know, that like Uncle Albert, or Abraham and Sarah, we can laugh and trust that our spirits will rise in the process.

Don’t you think your body, mind, and spirit could benefit from a good laugh? 

Blessings to you today.

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Running, Running, Running…Behind!

Most of us are runners! Oh, we may not be doing marathons, but we’re running just the same.  We imagine we’re running to catch up because we’re already way behind where we thought we’d be by now. You might remember a song that Jackson Browne made famous called, “Running on Empty.”  It wasn’t about the mileage left in his fuel tank. It was about the sense that something within him hadn’t been nourished. No matter how fast he ran, he was still running on empty.  The song recognized that life was moving at such an amazing speed, he was missing the good stuff, the things that really mattered. He ran past the people who could make a difference in his life. 

The song worked because people recognized the truth in it. They pictured themselves in their youth, moving as fast as they could to make things happen. They saw how often they pumped themselves up with what could be, rather than by what they had. Some of them knew they had missed what was essential to their lives because they were running to catch up with what they thought was important. They were running on empty.

That may be a malady of humans, but it doesn’t have to be your story. The truth is that God is always ready to refuel you, energize you, and fill you up with those things that make a difference. He wants you to see His hand at work in the circumstances around you and in the work you do. He wants you to be nourished and healthy and strong, so that you can give more than you take. In His grace, you can walk in fullness and delight, instead of running. With God, you are always on time because He never leaves you behind. He’s there, ready to shine a light on all that’s good just for you. 

Today, take a few deep breaths and walk with the One who wants only the best for you. With His help, you will never feel depleted, or deprived, or have a sense that you are simply running behind. He’ll see to it that you’ll always have a full tank. Breathe in the holy, amazing, and loving presence of God. He’ll fill you up with all good things. 

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You’re an Awesome Giver!

 

Today, I’d like to just stand up and give a shout out to the givers, the people who continually look for ways to put others ahead of themselves. Sometimes they do it with fanfare, but usually they simply do it with heart, never thinking twice about the act itself. When God said He loved a cheerful giver, He had to have those people in mind. You know some of them. You are one of them. Thank you for simply being a kind and generous you. We don’t usually need much help in figuring out how to give to someone else, but here’s a few ideas to consider.  One writer put it this way. “Give strength, give thought, give deeds, give wealth. Give love, give tears, and give yourself…the more you give, the more you live.” Wow!

Give strength: On any given day, someone you know feels weak or depressed or lonely. They think life is nothing but struggle.  They can hardly navigate the day. Your kindness will give them strength.

Give thought: Send an encouraging text, or make a friendly phone call, or write an email and open a door for someone by simply sharing a helpful idea, a kind word, a thoughtful scripture. Your thoughts make a difference. In fact, one nice thought from you could pour sunshine on a weary soul.

Give deeds: You may discount things you do for others, shrugging them off as nothing, but your good deeds make life easier and keep hope alive. Baking cookies for the neighbors, sending a card, taking a friend to the airport…your good deed options are as endless as your imagination.

Give wealth: Most of us don’t even recognize how wealthy we are. Given the standards of most of the world, we’re incredibly blessed. If you are doing well, give God the glory.  If you’re on the downside of financial stability, give God the glory. He will provide and stand by you, until you feel victorious again. 

Give love: Loving others seems like the easy one, but God knows how hard it can be. That’s why it bears the greatest risk and reward. The beautiful thing about giving love is that you will never run out of your supply. The more you give, the more God will give back to you.

Give tears: If you’ve ever cried with a friend, or grieved with someone in great pain, you know what a blessing shared tears can be. Even Jesus wept. Your heart is the giver of tears.

Give of yourself: Finally, each time you offer others your authentic, generous, and thoughtful self, you make a difference. You become the blessing. You become the reason someone else had an amazing day.  

God blesses you every time you choose to be a giver, to honor His children with all that you are able to share. Thanks for being wonderful you!

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Where Is God?

Some years ago, my husband worked with a cartoonist named Al Hartley. You may remember him from the Archie Comics series, or the days when he worked with Stan Lee developing Marvel characters that are still around today. At some point, Hartley tuned into God’s frequency and developed the Archie Christian comics series. He created the artwork you see represented here as a gift to Bruce Barbour. Since it hangs in our house today, I’ve had many chances to appreciate Hartley’s work. Of course, I was a fan of Archie, Betty, and Veronica, and even, Jughead.

I think this picture is a great illustration of the way some of us search for God. We look into nature and the vast sea of possibilities and hope it will shine a light on God’s existence. We find peace and a sense of calm, but we walk away, knowing we did not really discover the true nature of God. We catch a glimpse of the One who created everything around us, but it doesn’t fill the longing we have to know God for ourselves.

Others of us, are pretty sure God just isn’t there. We stand firm with our arms crossed in our unbelief, convinced by our own intellect that God is a myth. We imagine believers to be those who just can’t face reality. We look, but we simply don’t see anything that is convincing, because, after all, we’re smarter than that. 

A few of us are really the luckier ones, the blessed ones, in the view of this writer. After all, we didn’t really know how to look for God. We looked but weren’t sure what we’d find. Some of us even stopped looking because we were too blind to see. Despite our efforts or lack of efforts, God showed up anyway. He planted Himself right behind us around us, and in front of us, making it very clear He was there. Then, He did an amazing thing. He pushed our doubts aside. He knew we were helpless to find Him and so He just showed up and claimed us as His own. 

Hartley probably didn’t have this in mind, when he created this awesome piece of artwork featuring my husband’s three children. However, it strikes me as an impressive example of the way God does things. He makes us curious about Him and hopes we’ll see that He exists in all things. He steps back when we want to be in control and lets us believe we can stand under our own power. Of course, He knows eventually we will figure out He’s right there, right beside us. He always has been, and always will be.

If you’re still trying to figure out where God is today, you might look around, or you might convince yourself He’s on vacation. But, if you’re really ready to find Him, then look up, or turn around and call His name.  You’ll see Him standing right there beside you, ready to scoop you up in His everlasting embrace. 

Blessings to you today.

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Where Can I Hide?

It appears that humans have been trying to avoid getting too close to God from the very beginning. Sometimes they knew they had done something incredibly wrong. Sometimes, they didn’t like the assignment God gave them. In the case of Adam and Eve, hiding from God was a new experience. After all, they had the most personal relationship with God a human can have. They listened to His voice and talked to Him daily and yet, even they were led astray. Jonah didn’t like the idea of saving the wicked people of Nineveh, so he got on a boat going the opposite direction. He was sure that would save him. Of course, three days in a fish’s belly cured him of that notion. He went on to do his assignment. 

Elijah was one of the greatest prophets of all time and yet, he too, fell into fear and hid after his victorious encounter with the prophets of Baal. Feeling afraid that he was one of the only prophets of the living God left, he decided to hide. God called him out of the cave and let him know he was not alone. 

Fear is what drives most of us into hiding, or at least it creates the desire to hide. We either fear that we’ve disappointed God beyond measure, and forgiveness may not be possible, or we fear those who threaten our livelihood and our options. We fear that what we’ve done or what could be done to us is simply too big for God, or too hard for God to handle. It is absolutely true that our actions have consequences, and it is also true that difficulties may prevail, but that’s not the end of the story. Today’s circumstance is simply part of the greater story; it’s not the whole story. That means that even when we make a mess of things, we can count on God helping us find a new step, an opportunity that we would surely have missed. 

Adam and Eve had to leave the garden, but God still fed and clothed them. He still made sure they were cared for. Jonah ultimately did what God asked him to do, even though he didn’t like it, but Jonah’s story did not end there. Peter wanted to hide after he denied Jesus three times, because he regretted his actions. Jesus didn’t let the story end there. Peter went on to do amazing work for the people of his time, work that still calls us to the foot of the cross. 

When we have regrets, or when we wonder if we can be forgiven, the answer does not lie in running as far from God as we can. The truth is that God always knows where you are. So, what you can do, instead, is run toward the One who loves you, who embraces you as a prodigal child, and who is the only one who can truly forgive you. When you do, you’ll know you’re in good hands and that God will never stop loving you. When you stand in His light, everything will feel better.

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The Beauty of a Blank Page

Writers may travel far and wide, but they always come back to the same place; in fact, to the exact same place…a blank page!  For some, that page is like looking out at a vast universe of infinite possibilities. It’s brilliant, it’s poetic, and there’s not an obstacle in the world to keep you from bringing it to life. For others, the blank page is a challenge. It stands perfectly still, casting no shadows, giving no hints as to what it might become. It boldly draws you in, beckoning from some mysterious place for just a word or two.

Of course, the blank page has no emotions. It exists at the good pleasure of the one who will fill it up with ideas and inspiration, taking twists and turns, flowing from the keyboard as though no one was even in charge. Of course, the writer didn’t come to the page by chance. Hours of planning, praying, information gathering, and selective sampling all came first. Word lists and scriptures, quotes from great thinkers who long ago had faced the blank page were already gathered there. 

You don’t find the blank page intimidating when you’ve done your homework because you’re well-prepared to take it on. You’re equipped to move forward with an important message, a nugget of truth that you can hardly wait to share with your readers. You’re excited as you anticipate their response, their renewed enthusiasm for a subject they thought they knew so well. You’ve given them an enlightened perspective and they will not be able to walk around it. They can embrace it, ignore it, challenge it, and otherwise, poke holes in it, but they can’t take away the connection they made, the opportunity you gave them to adjust their lens and see things a bit differently.

They may love it, hate it, admire it, or even feel annoyed by it, but whatever they feel, you’ve done your part. You faced the blank page, armed with those things God wanted you to share so that you could make a difference. You’ve offered a unique voice that opens new doors. Of course, your own inner critic shows up almost immediately. It will defy you to keep going, tempt you to delete the page, and assault your ego. It’ will remind you that you’re nobody special, so nobody will care about the things you’re doing. It’s an empty voice though, growing fainter as you move forward. The One who called you to the blank page is fully at work in you, guiding the incredible words your readers are desperate to hear. 

So, here you are. You’ve been equipped and inspired. You’ve been challenged and encouraged. Only you can face a blank page and turn it into a masterpiece.

Get going then!

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What Do You Know?

A scripture in Matthew 9 talks about two blind men who followed Jesus for some distance. Apparently, they knew He was in the area and so when they heard he was passing by, they began to call out to Him. “Have mercy on us, Son of David!” they called. They pursued Him until they finally came close enough to talk as Jesus entered the temple. Jesus paused and turned to the two men. “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” he asked.  They replied with a resounding, “yes!”

It’s interesting that the two men pursued Jesus even though they likely had no experience with him. They simply had heard stories, incredible stories about what He could do. As the blind men followed after Jesus, it’s interesting that they didn’t shout that they’d like to be healed, that they would like to receive their sight. They simply asked for mercy and let Jesus interpret that thought for Himself. I don’t know, but it seems to me that I would have been more direct, more anxious, more inclined to say, “I want to see! I want to see you!” Whatever their reasoning, they knew one thing. They were determined to get His attention and they would not stop until they got it. Somehow, they knew it was important to follow Him.

Most of us like to know things. We like to trust that we know enough about life and how it works to make good decisions. We like to believe we’re smart enough to put things together in a way that makes sense and that we have an inside track when it comes to knowing things. The ancient biblical world didn’t have the benefit of AI resources, or even Wikipedia and so people didn’t know things because they were able to research every nuance on the internet. They didn’t know things because they listened to the voices of strangers across the globe who told them what to believe and how to live. 

They knew things because somewhere deep inside their own spirits, they recognized truth. They understood that there were things far greater than themselves that made a difference in the universe. They knew that what they needed was not necessarily what they wanted. They might want their sight back, but what they really needed was simply to be granted mercy. Mercy would mean that they were not alone to endure whatever they suffered. Mercy would mean that someone cared and that they were known.

When Jesus asked the blind men if they believed He was able to have mercy on them, able to help them, able to heal them, they knew deep down that He could. They knew in that unshakeable, amazing way that all of us must know, feel, and understand when we come to faith. 

Sometimes we want things in our lives because we believe they will make a difference or make us happier. Our wants may not actually do that, however. What makes a difference is knowing that when we call out to God for mercy, He will turn and face us. He will only then ask, “What do you know? What do you believe? Do you think I am able to do this?” 

Only you know the answer.

 

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Find Your Voice

No matter how long you’ve been around, you may still struggle to find your voice, to say the things that you really believe and not just the things you believe others expect you to say. Finding your voice is about having the courage of your convictions, being willing to change when you learn new information, or when you recognize something you never quite understood before. Your voice needs to give you value and strengthen everything you write.

Only you can decide the tone and the style of the voice that conveys your personality, causing you to be unique and distinctive. If you were a singer, your audience would know your voice in an instant and they’d be humming along. If you were an actor, you’d be so good at portraying the voices of others that people would believe you and come back to see more of your work.

As a writer, your voice invites people in and causes them to connect with all the places you’ll take them. You soothe their fears by sharing stories and ideas that resonate with the experiences they have in life. You raise the bar on things they thought they already knew, but now wonder if they should learn a bit more. Your voice brings them into your story, your devotion, whatever your form of writing might be because you have peeled the onion layer by layer and allowed them to know you, given them permission to enter into your world and walk with you.

When you know the voice you want to share, you lead your readers into the most amazing places, letting them feel the very Spirit of God in brand new ways.

Jesus knew that His sheep, His believers, would recognize His voice any time and follow Him. No one else had a voice like His. Your voice will draw readers in as well and give them a new opportunity to be nourished as you graciously point them in the direction of the Master Himself.

Write with passion and with truth and with the kind of voice that allows your work to stand out from the voices of all others. After all, there’s no one quite like you!

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When It’s Not Possible

I’m pretty much an It’s Still Possible kind of believer. After all, I know that God can do anything and if He chooses to help, there’s no fix I can get into that He can’t fix. Though I believe it serves most of us well to focus on those things that are possible, or at least more positive, we all know there are limits. We’re all aware that sometimes the winds of change do not blow in our favor.

For example, I know that my husband’s pancreas will not simply grow back and supply the enzymes his body needs to digest and process food. By human standards, it’s something we adjust to because it can’t be fixed. Is it possible with God, absolutely!? Is it likely to happen? Not so much.

So, we all have those things that are just no longer possible given our age or our health, or even our faith. In that headspace, we just accept our circumstances and do our best to move on.

The question then, is what happens when it’s not possible, when the thing we pray for, wish for, hope for, can’t happen for a long list of reasons. What then?

Perhaps the first thing to do is put our anxiousness and our fears and our troubled hearts in front of God and let Him know we were hoping for a different answer, that we believed something better would happen. It’s okay to let God know when we’re disappointed, or when we even feel betrayed. Our grief and despair can all be poured out in front of God if we remember this one thing. God still reigns. God is the designer, the Creator, the One who is in charge, even as things change. As His children, we can and we want to tell Him everything about how we feel…joy, amazement, gratitude, disappointment, or sadness. Our humanness is in His hands.

One thing we can learn from the biblical account of Job is that Job didn’t try to determine if God was fair, He only tried to determine if God still knew he believed God was in every circumstance Job faced. Trusting God knew what was going on with Job was enough for him. Job could let God work out the rest.

Perhaps one take away for us then is simply to remember that God knows everything about us. He doesn’t miss the details and no matter what we face, He’s still there and He hears every prayer. When what you want isn’t possible, what you need is still there for you. 

 

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Lord, I Have Nothing Left to Say!

It’s unlikely that you get to the place very often where you simply don’t want to talk to God. You’ve said everything you can think of, waited patiently, tried to do all the right things, and still your life feels out of control and out of your hands. You question whether God can actually give you any advice because you didn’t hear a thing when you were trying so hard to listen. Your heart is heavy, your mind is over-burdened and you can’t think of one thing you haven’t already shared with God about what’s going on. You simply haven’t got a prayer!

So, what do you do when you feel like that? How can you find a new path to prayer that will bring you peace? 

My first thought would be to give yourself permission to step aside from what now feels like the work of prayer and take a break. It’s worth noting that God will not be sharing a break time with you because He’ll still be working on the issues surrounding your life. He’ll be busy opening the eyes of others who will help you along the way. He’ll be walking with you, never once leaving you without His love and protection. As the same time, He’ll inspire the prayer warriors around you to step up and work overtime on your behalf. He’ll inspire thoughts of you in their minds to offer prayers for you and words of encouragement. 

You can tell God you have nothing left to say. You can set the burden down at His feet and focus on those things you can do something about. You can breathe in the moments before you and look for ways to be a blessing to others. In time, you may be inspired to try something new to help your current crisis. It may surprise you that there is so much more to discover, when you step back and give God time to act. 

When you come to the end of all the words you know, then stop speaking, and let God speak to you. Let Him shine a light on your thoughts and memories, on things that you never noticed in all the efforts you made to reduce your cares and concerns. Hand it over, let God take it from there, and don’t take it back. If you do that, you won’t ever have a sense that you are obligated to pray. You won’t imagine you are rehashing all the words you said before. You’ll only feel your spirit seeking to warm you from the inside out to let you know that all is well. Why? Because God heard you from the very first prayer you spoke, and He’ll find a way to give you peace and assurance. After all, He is still in charge!

 

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