A Typical Day

03/26/2005

What does your day start out like? I would imagine it’s busy, getting the kids off to school, getting ready to go to work, heading out for a vacation, perhaps even once again visiting the doctor because you are battling an illness that keeps you occupied right now. I have done all of these things--spent my mornings enduring a hectic pace with the kids, or with work, or feeling the excitement of a wonderful vacation that was planned, and even knowing what many trips to the doctor are like having had a very sick child.

But that is not what most of my mornings look like now…most mornings I wake to a quiet RV, Jim is already awake and up. He hears me rustling around at the other end of our home, which if you’ve ever been in an RV you know what that might sound like. Most days, he’ll get a cup of coffee going for me as I grab my Bible and a devotional for some quiet time in prayer and reading. Not a bad way to start a day, not at all! I appreciate it at this time in my life, after raising three boys! Many mornings in the past looked quite different!

I feel very blessed now as I awake to each new day, having the quiet and the time to get in touch with God. To be cleansed from the things that filled the previous day--some that were not so lovely. I begin to thank God for His provisions, for His forgiveness, and to praise Him for His goodness, asking Him to also lead me and guide me through this new day. After I have had this time, I am feeling fortified, focused and excited for what the day holds. Once again, yesterday has been put in perspective, tomorrow need not concern me, and I am able to concentrate on just this one day…and then the day starts…and it again is filled with everything from joy to frustration—a typical day. Not all good, not all bad, most things land somewhere in the middle.

As the day progresses, things start to drain me, as I’m sure they do you, and I start to question all the things that earlier had seemed so clear when I was focused and in the presence of God during my quiet time with Him. I start to wither like a flower in the hot sun; I start to doubt the things that seemed so sure in the first morning hours… I know “spiritual leakage” is taking place. I learned that term, “spiritual leakage,” in reading Oswald Chambers. He says, “If we lose the vision, we alone are responsible, and the way we lose the vision is by spiritual leakage.”

I wasn’t quite sure what that meant the first time I read it, but I’m getting a pretty clear picture of it now. It’s what happens to all of us, each day, all day long, as we move further out into the world and further away from the time we spent in close connection with our Lord. Our pastor here said a few weeks ago, “When we lay our head on our pillow at night, we come in on fumes. Our tanks are empty, and they need to be refilled the next morning before starting another day.”

Oswald Chambers goes on to say, “The only way to be obedient to the heavenly vision is to give our utmost for God’s highest, and this can only be done by continually and resolutely recalling the vision. The test is sixty seconds of every minute, and the sixty minutes of every hour, not our times of prayer and devotional meetings.”

It’s easy to see the vision when we are still, quiet and listening, but what happens when the natural part of our day starts to invade the spiritual? The spiritual starts to leak away as the world’s logic and wisdom begins to override what God has spoken to our hearts when we were in touch with Him. The vision starts to fade and practicality starts to take over. How do we cling to the vision then?

You may be asking yourself, “What is the vision--I’m not even getting that part? I don’t have some huge vision that God has given me to fulfill, I’m just trying to get through each day as best I can right now.” Your vision for the day does not have to be a big project--it’s not making plans to become a missionary, or anything out of the ordinary, it’s in the “sixty minutes of every hour” of your day, each day you live. It’s loving those who are unlovely, it speaking kindly to those who are not so kind, or having patience when your patience has worn thin. It’s being Christ-like throughout each day, no matter what the day holds. It seems easy in that quiet time with God, we’re going to do better today…and then the day starts to invade the great plans we made, and it can turn ugly! By the time the day ends, even the fumes we have left don’t smell very good…

But the Bible says, “So don’t get tired of doing what is good. Don’t get discouraged and give up, for we will reap a harvest of blessing at the appropriate time.” (Gal. 6:9 NLT)

“Don’t get discouraged and give up”…easier said than done! But what do we do when the day we expected to have begins to fade into the confusion of what seems to be happening? What do we do when the great plans it seemed God had for us that morning are bombarded with doubt and fear and frustration as the day goes on? What then?

I heard a preacher say something to this effect, “Everything was going great, it was a beautiful day, etc…then I got out of bed.” Life slaps you in the face and you wonder where those “visions of loveliness” disappeared to, or where the excitement for the project at hand has gone? It hasn’t gone anywhere; nothing has changed except our view of what is at hand. I’m not saying there aren’t difficult times, but what God has given us in our time with Him is the “well” we are to draw our strength from as the day progresses. As Oswald Chambers says, “We cannot stay on the Mount of Transfiguration, but we must obey the light we received there, we must act it out. When God gives a vision, transact business on that line, no matter what it costs.”

One of the enemy’s greatest weapons is the lie that we are alone, that no one else feels like we do, that no one else struggles like we do. One of the greatest weapons God gives us to combat that lie is fellowship. It is getting together with other believers and sharing our lives with them, by opening up our hearts with them and discovering that they are struggling in much the same way as we are. Life looks so perfect from the outside, but when you step behind closed doors, it’s a whole different story. Everyone is struggling, everyone is combating fear and doubt and worry and frustration and the failure to achieve the “perfect life” that everyone else seems to have. Truth be known, no one has a perfect life. The world just doesn’t work that way, the enemy is alive and well and busy and we might as well get used to it. He’s not going anywhere until Jesus comes back!

Sometimes we get caught between a rock and a hard place, and we’re not sure if God has really planned a way of escape for us this time. Listen to this story in Exodus about the Israelites:

Then the Lord gave these instructions to Moses: “Tell the people to march toward Pi-hahiroth between Migdol and the sea. Camp there along the shore, opposite Baal-zephon. Then Pharaoh will think, ‘Those Israelites are confused. They are trapped between the wilderness and the sea!’ And once again I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will chase after you. I have planned this so I will receive great glory at the expense of Pharaoh and his armies. After this, the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord!” So the Israelites camped there as they were told. Exodus 14:1-4 (NLT)

Do you see where God led His people? Right between a rock and a hard place, “between the wilderness and the sea”! They were not happy! Their day was not looking so good! They complained to Moses, “Why did you bring us out here to die in the wilderness?” (Exodus 14:11 NLT) Oh, the vision was exciting in the beginning, they were being set free! They all left Egypt, following Moses through the desert to the Promised Land, but then “spiritual leakage” began. Every time they ran into trouble, they moaned and complained and worried and argued. They lost the vision so quickly and they wanted to head back to Egypt! Where was their faith in the vision God had first given them? It came and it went as the events of each day shot holes through what God was calling them to. Their “boat” started to leak right out there in the middle of the desert sand!

But had God deserted them? Absolutely not, God had not changed one iota, nor had His plans for them. He said, “I have planned this so I will receive great glory at the expense of Pharaoh and his armies.” Wow! God plans each day we live, and when difficulties arise, it seems He plans that also. We may or may not like that, but it is what it is and we can do with it what we will. Will we go down with the ship or will we plug up the holes that are being shot into our perfect plan for the day by remaining faithful and trusting God? The enemy attacks, but we must take a firm stand!

So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God,
and in his good time he will honor you. Give all your
worries and cares to God, for he cares about what happens
to you. Be careful! Watch out for attacks from the Devil,
your great enemy. He prowls around like a roaring lion,
looking for some victim to devour. Take a firm stand against
him, and be strong in your faith. 1 Peter 5:6-9 (NLT)

As I have written in one of the recent songs my brother and I are working on, “I’m coming back to what is true.” We have to do that each day, all day long! It is essential to put our trust in Almighty God, and not allow the enemy to distract and deceive us!

In Exodus, it goes on to say, “But Moses told the people, ‘Don’t be afraid. Just stand where you are and watch the Lord rescue you. The Egyptians that you see today will never be seen again. The Lord himself will fight for you. You won’t have to lift a finger in your defense.’” Exodus 14:13-14 (NLT)

As each day unfolds, what will we cling to when distress comes along…because it will. Life is challenging, each day is filled with so many unknowns--some very good, some very bad, and everything in between. What will we cling to when the phone call comes that our Grandma is dying? What will we cling to when the bills start adding up and there is not enough money to cover them all? What will we cling to when our spouse says, “I want a divorce.” We must cling to what we learned on the “Mount of Transfiguration” in our quiet time with God! Those times in prayer will help us get through the tough times, the doubting times, or even the times when the blessings being showered upon us are so numerous we don’t feel we deserve such goodness! We need to keep coming back to what is true, and cling to it with all our God-given strength!

Can I share a blessing that I recently received when it seemed my back was up against the wall and there was no way of escape? It may seem like a small thing to some, but to me it was a miracle of God and His mighty provisions for our lives…I work on a laptop that Jim basically pulled out of the junk pile in 1999 for Phil. Phil was spending days in the hospital then, battling the cancer, and a laptop was a diversion from those long hours lying in bed. When Phil went Home, I “inherited” his laptop for my writing as we headed out onto the road. I’m not a big computer person, like Jim is, I basically need something to type on and maybe do a little creative work from time to time, but that’s about it. So, an old laptop served my needs just fine. Jim kept nursing it along, cleaning it up, protecting it from viruses, adding what needed to be added, and it has worked long beyond its years. But just recently, it seemed it was about to crash and burn. The case was cracked and each time I would move it, it would freeze up. I would need to restart it many times, and was always careful to save my work often so as not to lose it in the middle of writing something. It was on its last leg, so we discussed getting a new laptop-- when such a purchase really does not fit into our “budget” at the moment.

Well, God’s “budget” is so very different than our own, and without stealing the eternal blessing of those most generous, suffice it to say I am now writing this message on a new laptop. One without cracks, one that doesn’t shut down each time I move it, and one that will constantly remind me each time I write, of God’s marvelous provisions in the smallest details of our lives. For me, to be without a laptop, would be like my brother trying to compose music without a piano. 

To take it a step even deeper, which I am prone to do, the old laptop was a reminder of the past. It was a reminder of Phil’s illness; of things most painful as I wrote of the many, many lessons God was teaching me/us along the way of His great healing powers when the days seem so very dark. This new laptop speaks to me of newness in many ways--of the healing that has come, of the future God is calling us to and of taking another step in leaving the past behind and looking with Hope toward what’s in store.

No, dear brothers and sisters, I am still not all I should be,
but I am focusing all my energies on this one thing: Forgetting
the past and looking forward to what lies ahead. I strain to reach
the end of the race and receive the prize for which God, through
Christ Jesus, is calling us up to heaven.
Philippians 3:13-14 (NLT)

We were caught between a rock and a hard place when Phil when Home. It seemed God had led our family into certain disaster--as relationships can fall apart at a time like that, faith in God can waver, life can lose its meaning and looking for a way of escape from the pain can cause even more problems than just dealing with the death a loved one. What were we to do? And yet, I believe God says, “Just stand where you are and watch the Lord rescue you.” And He has, and continues to do so!

It’s all a matter of focusing on the vision, not losing sight of it…with the ultimate vision being a relationship with Jesus Christ. He is the Hope for each day, no matter what else happens. We had to get out of the “boat” and walk on the water towards Jesus without losing site of Who He is and what He can do through and for us when He is our strength and our peace.

Now, we may have an unfair advantage here…as my best friend recently explained to me when I was talking to her about getting out of the boat! She said, “Your boat sunk, you had no choice!” How right she is! When Phil died, our boat of security in this world went down to the depths of the dark sea, it was gone from sight and we could either drown in the waves of sorrow or we could focus on Jesus and walk on top of the circumstances with Him. When we lose sight of His vision of Hope for each day, we quickly succumb to the waves that beat against us and began to drown us in our grief.

O. Chambers says, “The life of faith is not a life of mounting up with wings, but a life of walking and not fainting.”

Not everyone will experience their “boat” sinking as drastically as we did, but everyone will deal with the leaks that occur as the harshness of life beats against them in everyday occurrences. That is why we all come in on fumes at the end of the day. That is why as the day wears on, fear and panic and frustration seems to increase. We get tired of walking and we start fainting, growing parched and weary on the desert trail that leads us to the Promised Land! We wonder if we will ever reach the Promised Land while we are still on this earth? Guess what? It’s closer than you think!

As I watched a woman give her testimony this morning on TV, I listened to her story of running a marathon and experiencing the healing power of God. When in her pain and weariness it seemed she couldn’t take another step, she heard someone say, “I see the finish line, it’s just around the corner.” That inspired her to keep going, and she finished the race! It brought tears to my eyes as I listened to the victory she experienced and the healing God brought in her life! Amazing stuff!!

For all of us, the Promised Land is right there, just around the corner. We have to keep moving towards it until we cross over that fine line of deception caused by the enemy. The enemy says, “You’ll never make it!” But we will! We already have just by running the race with Jesus Christ. The Promised Land has very little to do with actually arriving anywhere, and everything to do with the journey there. It’s on the journey, in running the race Jesus calls us to, that we find the peace and the hope that we long for. When we are focused on the things of God and not on the things of this world, there is joy in the journey. There is purpose in each day and a fulfillment in our lives that feels like a coming home. We don’t have to actually arrive Home, into our heavenly Promised Land, to start receiving the promises of God. They are available to us right here, right now, on this day! When we start to live in them, to draw our strength from them, eternal Victory is already ours!

We won’t find that victory in a sinking boat--the one many of us continue to live in each day. Most times, the leaks will occur faster than we can plug them up and our boats will eventually sink. The Promised Land is found by getting out of the boat and focusing on Jesus, then we don’t have to be concerned that our boat is leaking on the journey through life because we’re walking on the water anyway. We are living in the vision of Hope we have been offered and nothing can deter us from it! We don’t need the boat any longer, because we have found out all we need is a Life Savoir. He will keep us afloat, and as we walk with Him, we will turn the corner and see what’s been there all along…God’s Promised Land of Victory!

What does the Victory of the Promised Land look like? What will we experience there? It looks like a sunny day, even when it’s raining. It’s a peace that transcends all understanding. It’s a godly wisdom that confounds those with only earthly wisdom. It’s a freedom from the constraints of the small box and the limited vision that the enemy would like us to live in and with. It’s an inner glow that is kept alive throughout the day because we never forget what happened on the Mount of Transfiguration when we were One on one with God.

Have you seen that glow? The glow that the Bible says Moses had on his face after he’d been up on the mountain with God? It’s amazing! I saw it last night at the Good Friday service. I saw it on the face of a young girl, my niece, as she danced before her Lord. With three other girls, they danced beautifully to the song, “Amazing Love.” She was focused as she danced, she was aglow with the love of God that fills her heart--she was free from the constraints of this world as she worshipped the King with her dance--she was experiencing the joy of the Promised Land and she was sharing it with all of us! What a gift!

Then Moses said to Aaron, “Say this to the entire community of Israel: ‘Come into the Lord’s presence, and hear his reply to your complaints.’ And as Aaron spoke to the people, they looked out toward the desert. Within the guiding cloud, they could see the awesome glory of the Lord.’” Exodus 16:9-10 (NLT)

When we are in the Most Holy Place, communing with God, we can see His awesome glory. By spending time in the Most Holy Place, we are transformed and transfused with the love of God.  His presence doesn’t then leave us when we go back out into the world, but the challenge then becomes, will we carry that vision with us throughout our day? Will we cling to it when it seems to be out of our sight? Will we always remember that we are the only ones who moved when God seems distant in our day—that God is still with us, guiding us and leading us along the path to our Eternal Home? If we will keep coming back to what is true, we will keep the glow of His love alive and be able to share it with those around us, just as my niece did!

That is our challenge for each day. Not to lose the vision, whether it is as simple as getting the kids to school with a joyful heart, or building a worldwide ministry with a joyful heart. When our heart is not connected to the Father, His Living Water will seep away through the cracks in our day and our lives will run dry of any joy and any confidence in God’s provision. The Promised Land is right around the next corner; let’s all experience it by not losing the vision on our own personal journey with Jesus.

As I end this message I just want to thank you Lord, for this wonderful new tool, this new laptop computer. You have provided it, and with it I will continue to share of Your great Love and provisions on this journey through life!!

Turning the corner,

Diane