What late snows?

It’s April 19 and it’s snowing outside. I want spring to be here so badly I could spit. Yet, I looked out my bedroom window a few minutes ago, and actually smiled - broadly. I smiled because I know that winter is about to end. Its demise is surely just around the corner, and that certainty makes me happy.

Even though right now winter is trying to taunt me... It’s trying to tell me that spring is not coming – that winter will never end. But I know it’s wrong. It’s lying. Because winter will end, and spring will come – and it will be soon.

Do you ever look around and see all indications of something contrary to what you believe and know to be true? Maybe you see something opposite of what you want, and there is no evidence of what you are praying for? And does it ever occur to you that evil wants you to think God is not listening? That it wants you to think that the winter of your heart will never end? That spring will never come? It occurred to me this very evening…

My grandparents were faced with circumstances that may have led them to feel like this many times. They felt God calling them to take the good news of Jesus to Africa. But they had many “snowy spring days” to get through before they would arrive and begin ministering. First of all, the church synod they were associated with – Lutheran Brethren – didn’t even have an African mission option. My grandparents’ proposal that the church begin a mission in Africa was denied when first suggested; there was no money to start a mission in another country, and the church already had a mission in China. However, the church leaders agreed to pray about it, and a year later they voted to begin a work in Africa and my grandparents were the first to go.

Their “spring snows” continued, however, as they waited for passage on a ship, and then waited a few years after arriving in Africa, for the Cameroon government to give them permission to begin mission work in that country. And this was all after God called them…after He said yes to their asking, “Is this what you would like us to do?” My grandparents’ lives showed that they trusted God. They were far from perfect, but they stayed the course and waited, prayed, and trusted.

What is faith, if not believing in the unseen? Can’t anyone believe spring will come when it’s sunny and 60 degrees outside? It is a snowy, mid-April evening like this when faith is tested, when faith must be exercised, and when truth must be clung to.

Shortly after I stepped away from the bedroom window I heard a slight noise in that direction and turned to see a robin on my window sill. It perched there a minute and then flew off. In another minute it was back. This time I noticed it had something in its beak and after it flew off again I moved closer and saw the early beginnings of a nest on my sill. The robin was disregarding the snowflakes filling the sky and was building a nest as if spring was imminent. He was not going to be derailed by a long winter...by late snows. He acted like he didn’t even notice. And I took a lesson from him.

I don’t know when spring is coming this year, but I do know it will come. And I don’t know when certain things I’m trusting God for will take shape, but I do believe they will. And by God’s grace I am going to keep trusting, keep building, and will hardly notice the late snows. Spring is imminent.

“And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.” Hebrews 11:6 NLT

Ideas to options

The previous post referenced toilet paper choices, actually as an introduction to these thoughts about selections of much greater significance. Having now visited Cameroon, where my grandparents spent the majority of their lives, I have been thinking about their choice to live and work in that country so far from their homeland. They felt called by God, there is no question, and, I wonder: did the call come out of an idea they had, which they then sought God’s input about?
Thinking about this in terms of my recent trip, I remember back when:

- The trip idea was first conceived
- I thought more about it and wondered
- I prayed and asked God to show me if this trip was His will
- I began exploring
- I waited, and finally…
- I received His confirmation, blessing and answer

I am noticing that it all started with an idea.

This is most often the case, isn’t it? If a batch of “monster” cookies is going to be enjoyed by my grandkids and me, I’ve got to come up with the idea to bake some cookies. If I’m going to invite a group of friends over for some good conversation and fellowship, I need to first think about inviting them over. And if I want to live a life to bring glory to God, I need to spend some time thinking about ways to do that. I need to consider what ideas are in my heart and mind that I may need to talk with Him about?

After this Africa trip I’m finding some dissatisfaction, even disillusionment with the “menu” options I see around me. These options concern a variety of items – big and small, significant and insignificant – yet they all seem to offer at least one of two things: more comfort and/or less pain.

I better quickly say that I don’t think it’s wrong to be comfortable or to be pain-free. I’m sitting in my comfortable home right now and am very thankful for it. I’m recently over a painful illness and am so grateful to be pain-free again. These are blessings from God. What I am telling myself is that I need to remember that this isn’t my home. This country isn’t even my home. Not even this earth. I’m passing through this place. And it’s so ridiculously easy to get sucked into believing this life is what it’s all about. We need to fight against that, continually.

So I plan to do a little rebelling against the choices around me. At least I’m going to seek to vet them, and not just grab an option because it’s there. I’m going to remind myself that with every option I select, I lose some current or future opportunity to choose. That’s the way options and choices work, isn't it? No matter who we are on this earth – we can’t have it all. Time, money, opportunities, relationships… They all have limits; we must be choosy.

My grandparents’ deviated significantly from the typical life option menu. And it seems it may have started when the idea was first conceived in my Grandpa’s mind. It resulted in a big choice to invest in another place, an everlasting place. I wonder what our lives would look like if we spent more time conceiving and praying about ideas than we did appraising existing menu options. I’m not sure, but I’m hoping to find out.

Rationing toilet paper

Here in the U.S. many of us have been blessed with an amazing number of choices. Consider the toilet paper aisle in the grocery store, for example. It has more than a dozen options. Ply, quilted or non-quilted, four-roll or bulk, lotion or non-lotion, and so forth… Well, I brought a roll of TP with me to Africa. Had been informed it was a good thing to have along for stops along the road, etc. As it turns out, I never actually had to use it for its intended purpose – yet, use every square, I did. And every time I ripped one or two squares off the roll, I thought of my dad.

You see my dad was a saver – a fairly extensive saver. Not like those shows on TV where people are almost buried in their stuff, but he had difficulty throwing things away. And he told us that it was due to growing up in Africa, where “you never knew when you might have a need for something.” He and his parents invented recycling, I think. And he was faithful to remind us that they couldn’t simply go to the store and buy things like we do here.

I always thought he had a pretty good excuse for hanging onto things, even though I never admitted that to him. A few times I wanted to remind him (and probably did, although it would have been a disrespectful thing to do) that he lived in America now, and had since he was eight years old.

When I found myself in Africa this year, treasuring each square of TP, for amazing numerous uses, such as: ant killings, small nose wipes, edge of sink cleanings, erasing make-up smudges, coasters, etc. – I knew my dad was having a good laugh from the heights. I could hear him lovingly say, “Now do you get it? Do you see why various odd items seemed so precious to me?”

And I smiled with each square I tore off...seldom more than one square at a time, because I didn’t know how many I would need before the trip was up. This silly thing made me remember and miss my dad. It made me appreciate what daily life out of one’s comfort zone can look like. And how joy can be found in realizing on the last day of a two-week trip that - you still have three squares of TP left!

(For the record, I did see toilet paper for sale at the market... One per package, one brand…)