Month: February 2013

To Walk With God (Prayer Devotional for the week of February 17, 2013)

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Many kids aspire to see their names in a Hall of Fame when they grow up. In fact, right here in Waco, we have the Texas Sports Hall of Fame museum, which commemorates athletic achievements across the state. There are plenty others, of course, and not all of them are related to sports. (Personally, I’d love a Pulitzer, but I digress.) As I began thinking about our new sermon series on putting God at the center of our lives, I remembered another Hall of Fame, found in Hebrews 11.

This Hall of Fame doesn’t have anything to do with athletic prowess or geeky achievements; instead, it features champions of faith since the dawn of creation. Adam was 130 years old when his third son, Seth, was born. (Earlier in the story, Adam & Eve’s eldest son, Cain, murdered his brother Abel and was then exiled into the wilderness.) The Bible says in Genesis 4:25 that around the time Seth had his first son (at the age of 105), “people began to call upon the name of the Lord” (ESV). Isn’t it interesting that it took 235 years for people to start worshiping God?!?

Adam lived another 800 years after Seth was born, which meant that he was alive to see Noah’s father, Lamech. It also meant that he witnessed two of the champions in the Hebrews 11 Hall of Fame: his deceased son, Abel, and his great-great-great-great-grandson, Enoch. Genesis 5:24 tells us that Enoch “walked with God” and one day, he simply disappeared because God took him. Hebrews 11:5-6 fills in the details a bit by explaining that Enoch was a man of faith, and he did not experience death; he was simply taken to heaven directly. Wow!

Enoch also happened to be the great-grandfather of Noah, who is also described in Genesis 6 as someone who pleased God. Not surprisingly, Noah also made it into the Hebrews 11 roster. Enoch and Noah did not seem to have any superhuman abilities or extraordinary accomplishments (except for the whole building-the-ark thing, but that was after Noah had proven himself faithful to the Lord). They just walked with God.

So, as we talk about putting God at the center of our lives, we’re not discussing rocket science. It’s a simple matter of choice, day in and day out, to walk with him in faith and practice.

Foodie Friday: Pot pie cups

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2013-02-09 12.23.56I’m a fan of using leftovers, but in a family our size, if we ever have leftovers, it’s not enough for a whole meal, so we have to get creative. We picked up some chicken strips last weekend from our favorite, local fast-food chicken restaurant, and there were only about 6 left. So, I chopped them up into chunks the next day and mixed the chunks in a bowl with a can (drained) of mixed veggies and the leftover country gravy from the chicken meal, plus a little sprinkle of poultry seasoning just because I love it.

My 9yo and I smooshed out canned biscuits as flat as we could get them with our hands and lined a muffin tin with the dough circles. We filled the biscuit cups with the chicken/veggie/gravy mix and baked at 375 for about 20 minutes.

The result was a smashing success! The whole pan disappeared, and they’ve already asked when we can make it again. It certainly isn’t a low-carb option, but the kids enjoyed it.

Prophetic timing, Part 3

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(Continued from yesterday’s post)

Sixteen years have passed since that Sunday morning. My life looks radically different, and yet many of my internal struggles nowadays are similar to ones that I experienced back then. I’m thrilled to report that my current boss is a delightful individual and going to work is not a drudgery, but there’s still a sense of “What do I want to be when I grow up?” People often ask me what I “plan to do with” my doctorate, as if the choices are all mine to be made. I honestly don’t know the answer to that question.

I enjoy the work that I’m doing, and I can see myself staying in this path, perhaps on a broader scale in the future. I’m making deliberate efforts to present and publish my research, so that I can gain a strong footing in academia, but even that can be iffy. I’ve seen faculty members strive for years to gain tenure and fail. Moving from “staff” to “faculty” can be next to impossible. Even making the leap from “staff” to “administrator” can be difficult, since so many of those folks come from the faculty. Anyway, it’s not something that I lose sleep over; I just do the best I can and trust that God has a plan for me.

The relationship aspects of what the woman told me, though — that’s another story. My dad and I went through some rocky times during and after my parents’ divorce. We have a much better relationship now, but I can see that God was preparing me back then to face some hard days. My brother and I developed a much closer relationship in the years following my overseas experience, which was awesome, and then he died, which was completely the opposite of awesome. I can see how she may have been referring to God “being there” for me when my brother was not. And then, there’s the marriage thing. It has been challenging, to say the least, Army deployments notwithstanding. I’m still trying to figure out the reference to that relationship. As for friends, some have come and gone, but a core few have remained, and for that, I’m very grateful.

Now that my eldest and I have the opportunity to go to Brazil this coming summer, I’ve been thinking about all of these things. There are so many prophesies in the Bible that pertain to both the current setting and some unknown time in the future. That’s kind of what this feels like right now. Perhaps the woman evangelist wasn’t just referring to Asia; maybe God was looking ahead to today. God hasn’t told me in such a clear way that we are supposed to go now like he did then, but he has already begun making provisions financially, and it is fun to watch my son’s excitement grow. It’s such a neat experience to be preparing for a trip like this as a pair, rather than just myself. I don’t know what he has in store, but I have a hunch that it’s going to be amazing!