Standing firm

Have you ever heard the saying, ”Remember, God has something up his sleeve besides his everlasting arm”?  While purging some old files I found this little saying on a card that I received from a friend. I looked at it and tossed it in the garbage but to be honest I’ve been thinking about it ever since.

“God has something up his sleeve…”  God has sleeves???

That’s a good thing to remember when we’re under pressure, or under threat or under stress.  No matter how desperate our situation, God always has something up his sleeve. God has a plan and a purpose for our lives — and for the ages. God has a plan that covers every detail, every need, every problem of your life and mine.  That is a pretty good reminder!

Here’s the thing, God may have a plan but that doesn't mean that you and I will necessarily understand what it is!  The other thing is this: just because you don’t see anything doesn’t mean God is not doing something. 

I don’t think we could even begin to comprehend God’s plan for the universe or for our individual lives. Our minds are finite and God is most definitely not. You and I have been around long enough to know that there will be times in life when God will allow us to go through something —difficult —for reasons that we can not understand.  Like maybe a “Global Pandemic”?

No one understood this principle better than the Old Testament prophet Daniel. Daniel was one of the bright and rising stars of Israel when the nasty King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon ordered that he be taken captive. He was uprooted from his home and culture and suffered anxiety, humiliation, and persecution as a captive of the Babylonians. Yet, even in the midst of all that Daniel remained faithful to his God. 

AND God had not forgotten Daniel. The Babylonian invasion was not a surprise to God. God worked all of those events together in Daniel's life to accomplish a positive purpose in a negative world. 

Daniel became a strong witness of truth and encouragement for his people — and to us even today because he was able to stand out, stand up, stand strong and stand firm in faith.

Maybe you are experiencing something today that looks like a setback, a failure, the end of everything— but God has something up his sleeve. You may be surprised by the events of this life, but nothing surprises God. 

So take heart. You are not alone and you never will be. Your faithfulness and willingness to stand against pressure and persecution will not go unnoticed. You are connected to a limitless, powerful God. 

God makes that unlimited power available to you and that power is as unlimited as God himself.

Stand firm in your faith!

Called to be different.

I remember a little gaggle of us sitting around in my friend’s basement.  I was 11 years old and we were gathered together to celebrate the birthday of said friend.  It was a fun party and we, as little girls are known to do, were laughing a giggling about this and that.

One of the girls said to another, “What’s your middle name?”  

“Lynn” replied the other.

“Mine too!” Sequels erupted and then other’s joined in.

“Hey, my middle name is Lynne too!”  

“No way!” The first Lynn shouted.

“My middle name is Kathrine.”

“Elizabeth” said another.

“Suzanne”

“Anne, with an e”, said my friend with the red hair.

Then all eyes were on me.  I knew the question was coming, I was the only one who didn’t offer. I didn’t have a middle name but I so desperately wanted to fit in. I was already so different from my fair skinned friends.

“Lynn,” I said. Trying it out in my head. Sure, Mona Lynn sounds ok.  “My middle name is Lynn too.”  I said sheepishly.

“What! That is crazy!  All four of us have the same middle name, what are the chances!” my friend exclaimed.“We should become a gang, and get t-shirts.”  She pulled us in close and we all put our arms on each other shoulders.  We were a gang.

I felt like a fraud but the amazing feeling of being like the others far outweighed the tinge of guilt I felt for lying.  In that moment, I vowed to myself that as soon as I was older, and knew how, I would get my named legally changed to Mona Lynn Manocha.  Guilt assuaged.

Eventually it came out that I indeed didn’t have a middle name. Embarrassed as I was, that hard lesson had a lasting impact. It was better to be me than try and be someone else. It was OK to be different.

So often we ignore, play down, dismiss our own value (or in my case lie) because we want to belong. We underestimate our worth, completely forgetting that there has never been, nor will there ever be, another person on this earth like us. Failing to honour what makes us unique, we deny the gift of life God has entrusted us with and the distinctly beautiful person God has made us to be.

Did you know that we are are more than the 37.2 trillion cells composing what you see in the mirror? We exist beyond the physical and according to Genesis 1:26-28, we are not an accident or an afterthought. We are divinely created souls, made in the image of a living God.

Embracing the beauty of my differences has honestly been something I’ve had to learn. While I don’t do it perfectly, I’m definitely better at accepting my unique God-given design than I was in junior high.

Jeremiah 1:5 tells us God intentionally made us to be different. “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

But, we must each choose to embrace our unique design and live serving the God who made us.  And as followers of Jesus we are called to be different. To think differently than the world. To act differently than the world. To love differently than the world. God made us to be different!

No matter what!

This week I was honoured to officiate the wedding of a lovely couple. They had plans for a big splashy wedding last year, but alas, Covid.  So, like many other couples they were forced to cancel those plans and make new ones.  

Over the course of the year, we had been in touch about possible dates and possible new venues but ultimately they decided that what was most important was to be married before God, a few of their closest friends and family and huge contingent on Zoom.  We met in a beautiful backyard, respecting all Covid protocols. Tuesday was a very hot, sultry day, but it was wonderful to witness this couple not only pledge their love to one another but commit to loving one another, no matter what!

This December, Brian and I celebrate our 35th wedding anniversary.  I mentioned that at the ceremony and someone came up to me afterwards and said, “35 years? You must be taking that 1 Corinthians passage seriously!”  I smiled at the comment.  I don’t know that we’ve done it all right, particularly the love is patient part, but we have committed to loving one another, no matter what!  I would like to think we strive for 1 Corinthians 13:13 where it says:

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

This is the love we can experience in our relationship with others, and with God. It is also what we experience from God — a love that never gives up and “never fails”! (1Corinthians 13:8). No matter what!

A few months ago our daughter Emily got engaged to the love of her life, Matthew. They have decided that they will pledge themselves to one another before God, their family and friends.  Given the unpredictability of Covid it too will be a small and intimate affair but they look forward to the day that they too will vow to love one another, no matter what!  They will vow to weather the tough storms together and together rejoice in the sun. 

It is my prayer for Emily and Matthew, for Brian and me, for the newlyweds and all those in relationships, that we may remember that God loved us first, God never gives up and God’s love never fails. 

God taught us not only what love looks like but what it means to truly love someone.  May we express that same unfailing love to those who love us.