Category: will of God

Velcrocity, My New Amazing Word

velcro-magnified
Velcro magnified

I like inventing new words, especially for words that have far too much mileage on them. A car runs great, but even the best autos start to have issues after the odometer goes over 200,000 miles.

So I’m purposing a new word even though I’m not quite ready to completely toss the old one yet. The new word is “Velcrocity”. I will define velcrocity as a mix of love, faithfulness and endurance. (Possible forms of this word– Walk in velcrocity, be velcroized more and more. Wasn’t that velcroful worship? And on and on.)

Just in case you’re wondering, Velcro is a fastener mostly used for clothing. It consists of two strips, one is covered in tiny loops and the other in tiny flexible hooks. The two strips ‘adhere’ when they are pressed together and separate when pulled apart.

“Velcro is strong enough that a two inch square piece is enough to support a 175-pound (79 kg) person. The strength of the bond depends on how well the hooks are embedded in the loops, how much surface area is in contact with the hooks, and the nature of the force pulling it apart.” –Wiki

Why velcrocity? Thinking about the Father God’s love for me (and others) made me start thinking about Velcro– and being “laid up” with my health sucking so poorly has helped me pray and think. And being way too curious I did a frontal assault on the internet of the sticky subject of Velcro.

The best info came from Wikipedia, of course. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velcro

The more contact between the strips of Velcro will strengthen the bond. The tighter the hook part pushes into mesh part more effort required to pull them apart.  The negatives of this wonder are they have to stay clean. Lint, dirt of hair get between and can keep the strips from bonding.

As I write this, the imagery parallels what I’ve already learned from my Bible, prayer, fellowship and worship. Spiritual lessons quite often will come from what I see physically. But I need to be teachable and a whole lot more perceptive.

Focus on Jesus, and stick to the things of God. There is an adhesion needed in the Church today, and it truly starts with your heart. The covenant heart of God is that you would more and more cling to Him. He is truly tenacious, in the best use of the word.

“I will never leave you, or forsake you.”

“The Love of God endures forever.”

&

Kyrie eleison.

ybic, Bryan

(How about Velcrophobic? Velcroful? Velcrology? Velcrophobic? —and then maybe not,)

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Growth in the Troughs of Life

This post has been floating around in my head for almost two weeks now, and I had fully intended to post it here at Broken Believers last weekend, but just didn’t get it done. In retrospect, learning of the great trough our dear brother Bryan is going through, I realize that either I should have made the time or the timing of posting it today is part of God’s design. All I know for sure is that it needs to be posted.

I recently purchased a new book titled The Soul of C.S. Lewis that consists of one-page reflections on various quotes from many of Lewis’ best-loved writings followed by a Bible verse. The book has 10 different contributing authors, and each essay is not attributed to an individual author, but they are all wonderful. Today I want to share a little about one of those essays, along with my own thoughts on the topic at hand.

The Lewis quote that begins the essay is from The Screwtape Letters, one of my favorites of Lewis’ fiction. Although fictional, there is a great deal of truth about the struggles and potential downfalls of the believer in Christ to be found in this short collection of letters between Screwtape, a high-level demon, and Wormwood, his nephew who is a low-level tempter in the minions of Satan. The quote at hand is:

“It is during such trough periods, much more than during peak periods, that it is growing into the sort of creature He wants it to be.” Screwtape, chap. 8, p. 40.

The trough periods Screwtape refers to are the low times in life that for some are manifested as periods of deep depression. Many a strong Christian has experienced such troughs over and over throughout their lives. I have experienced them to differing degrees myself, and our dear Bryan is experiencing just such a trough now. They are certainly no fun, and we often wish we could avoid them altogether, but experience tells us that is not possible. Perhaps it is not even truly preferable in the grand scheme of things as God sees it.

In the essay based on this quote, the author writes:

“Although the emotional peaks are bright and lovely and certainly more enjoyable, that doesn’t mean that the trough is the wrong place for us. The truth is that God is often most at work in the troughs—the hard places where we feel most desolate and alone. Sometimes when we’re trying to clamber back up to the peak, God may be calling us to stay awhile in the trough.”

“At these times we often feel full of confusion, fear, and sadness because we cannot see God’s hand at work, molding us by the very things we wish to escape. It is often only afterward, when he has moved us to a different place, that we can look back and see how he was working in the midst of the difficult spots.” The Soul of C.S. Lewis, pg. 115.

As I read this essay, I was reminded of Psalm 23. This well-known and beloved Psalm begins and ends in the peaks – “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want” and “I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.” But in the middle is a definite trough – “the valley of the shadow of death.” I’m pretty sure there is no trough deeper or darker than this valley. But – and this is the important part – we don’t travel that valley alone. God is with us in the valley of the shadow of death, He is with us in the troughs of life.

The valleys of deep depression are not signs that we have been forsaken by God or that God has given up on us. He is walking with us through that valley, using every step of the way to help us grow in faith and grace, so that we will be able to dwell in the house of the Lord forever. So let us not try to clamber out of the troughs we encounter ahead of God and by our own power, but let us instead walk close by our Lord, following in His footsteps to see where He will lead. He is our Light in the darkness of the deep valley. May we stop to see all that He is illuminating there.

Jesus said, “I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.” John 12:46 (NIV).

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Safe in the Mouth of Danger

In my dream, I had a vision.

An angel of the Lord led me down to the depths of the sea.

“What do you see?” the angel asked.

I said, “I see a boy, a child, in the mouth of a shark!”

“Yes,” the angel said.

“But, he is terrified!” I said.

“He will be grateful,” the angel said. “Watch.”

As I gazed upon the frightened child, a great white suddenly attacked the shark. The child began to climb out of the mouth of the shark, but he had set his leg upon its jaws and the shark bit down and took off his leg. The child, however, was able to swim away safely because the great white was devouring the shark.

“How is this possible?” I asked the angel.

“Do you not know?” the angel responded. “Have you not heard? With God, all things are possible.”

“But,” I said. “Why was the child not spared this danger in the first place?”

“You will see,” the angel said. “Come.”

A moment later, we were on dry ground.

“Was that real?” I asked. “I am disillusioned.”

“What do you see?” the angel asked.

“My leg is gone!” I proclaimed. “I was the child!”

“Yes,” the angel said.

“But,” I said. “How can I live without my leg? I lost my leg!”

“But, you did not lose you,” the angel said. “And that is precisely what would have happened had you not lost your leg. If the shark had not swallowed you whole, the great white would have attacked you from the side. You would have been devoured and destroyed. Instead, you have been spared.”

“Why?” I asked. “Why have I been spared? Why am I still here? Why must I suffer so much?”

“You suffer,” the angel said. “Indeed, you exist, to give hope. Now, go. And teach God’s children how to walk with a limp. Strengthen your brothers. Encourage your sisters. Show them how to survive A Dark & Stormy Night.”

“Yes, my lord,” I said, bowing my head in respect as the angel vanished from my sight.

When I woke up, I recorded my vision, that my brothers and my sisters may yet understand why they, too, must walk with a limp.

“Do you not know? Have you not heard?
“With God, all things are possible.”

Waiting, for More?

“but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.”

Isaiah 40:31, ESV

This is a well worn scripture, and it gets much attention from commentators.  This is good.  But there are certain things that still go unnoticed.  These will prove themselves as critical, especially as we press into an understanding.

It starts with understanding the Hebrew word “kawvah.” We   translate this into English as “waiting” or “hoping.”  Certainly that is quite reasonable.  But this Hebrew word has a definite complexity which we really must look at.  “Kawvah” literally means “to bind together by twisting.”

It carries with an idea of binding.  This alone carries out the concept of connecting and uniting.  It strongly suggests a unity and securing.  It most certainly stresses a deep sense of intervening into things beyond us.

When you bind something, it is like ‘handcuffing” someone to another.  This is an attachment, which can’t be broken.  Where one goes, the other must follow.  But there is an idea of being pliable.  And soft, and tractable, and quite reasonable considering.

This idea, “to bind together by twisting,” intrigues me.  It is a lot like a rope, and the strands weave.  Two strands aren’t enough.  But three strands woven together starts the idea of a rope. Your effort to combine these different strands will make things quite amazing.

What is it like, to be intertwined with the Holy Spirit?  We wrap into Him, and He follows suit.  We get connected with Him, and we start to realize we have become completely different people.  Twisting and winding, we incorporate us into the Father.  We wait. And twist. And then blend right into this special place.

There is a certain softness we absolutely must enter into.  A certain flexibility.  We wind into Him, and we come to a point of not really knowing, where we are and were He begins.  And that is a wonderous place to be.

“Waiting” on Him brings us strength.  Isaiah anticipates the deep need of people.  We are only strengthened when we decide to “wait” on Him.  And remember dear one, to wait means we are now woven into Him.  And that changes everything.