stop reading your Bible

February 24, 2010 | faith, feelings

Don’t you love it when Scripture comes to life? My friend, Lysa TerKeurst, shares how the Bible had become a duty in her book, Becoming More. She decided not to read her Bible anymore.

Huh?

She didn’t want to read it as a book, or mark it off on her to-do list. So she stopped reading it, and started seeing it as an opportunity to connect with God. She sat down and read maybe one Scripture, or perhaps that turned to much more. But her prayer was “show me how to live”.

And He did.

I’ve been studying Romans this week. Some mornings I talk to God about what I’ve learned through one scripture. At other times, I’m drawn into the story of Paul and his dialogue with skeptics.

His words are interesting because of his experience. Paul had arrived in Rome straight out of the crossroads, a place where he was in limbo for two years plus. Not free. Not totally imprisoned. Shipwrecked. Hurt by church people who once admired him. (more…)

rage is never the answer

February 18, 2010 | family, feelings

I’ve been traveling today. Cell phone securely turned off. In a Southwest airplane cocoon. When I saw the Tweet go out that a plane had crashed into an IRS building in Austin, TX, I thought somebody was playing a bad joke. Unfortunately, someone died today because he thought crashing a plane into the side of a building was an answer to his rage.

When we react in rage, it’s like dominoes. Relationships and people go tumbling down.

Like the guy I saw on the road the other day. Running his truck up to the bumper of a car, flashing the universal sign out his car window. Intimidating.

Let’s fight. I’m so mad I’ve lost control and I don’t care what I look like, or how this makes you feel.

Somewhere these individuals lost sight that their actions really do matter. There might be a child in a car seat just out of view. There might be an innocent man trying to earn a living for his family in that office building. A grandpa. A father. A husband. A son.

Very few of us are going to crash into a building, and while we might gripe about the guy/gal who is driving side-by-side the semi at 40 mph, we keep it to a mutter.

But rage isn’t limited to the headlines. It’s boiling under the surface for a lot of us. It’s waiting to erupt because it just keeps getting pushed it down. After all, we don’t want to be “that girl” or “that guy” who loses it.

Or maybe you are already losing it. Cool as a cucumber around John Q Public and a screaming, you-can’t-trust-me-because-I-can’t-trust-myself person at home.

Rage is unresolved anger, so let’s look at it honestly.  

Admit it. Show it to God. Let Him see it in all it’s ugliness. 

Look at the bigger picture. Who is affected when you lose it? How many apologies have you offered, only to do it again?

Crucify it (put it to death). What? Suzie, I need more than that.

So do I. That’s why daily I take those parts of me that I don’t like, that hurt others, and I offer them up to God. It has to be more than words.

Daily I look into the faces of the people I love the best, and if I want to be real with anyone, it’s these individuals. I want them to have the best parts of me.

Daily I look at my own life, not in a legalistic, fatalistic point of view, but with the hope and belief that with God everything is possible. I have to be honest about my shortcomings, and also honest about my strengths.

Work on one (with God’s help and guidance and grace). Crucify the other.

For me, temper was once an issue. Sometimes, it tries to rear its ugly head and come back into the picture.

But I’ve learned that over time, as you and I build and nurture the good parts of us, the bully (emotions, feelings) that wants to jerk you and I around by the neck gets smaller.

The bully is surprised when its used to forcing us into a knee-jerk reactions and we don’t. The Spirit part of you and I that loves Jesus jumps up and down in joy.

I’m praying for the innocent people in Austin hurt today by one man’s rage.

And I’m also praying for those who feel like rage has had too big a part of their life, and want a brand new start.

What an awesome place to begin… with prayer.

Father, Thank you that I can be real with You.

Thank you for emotions, for the ability to feel, but God if those emotions have trapped me, I want a fresh start. I place that burden at the Cross today. And if tempted to pick it up tomorrow, or in the next 15 minutes, I’ll come right back to you and place it there again. Let me see rage for what it is, and the damage that it does. I ask for peace and strength that can only come from You.

In the powerful name of Jesus. Amen

Incredible forgiveness, incredible freedom

February 2, 2010 | faith, feelings

I’m joining Deanna Allen, host of Pathway to Serenity blogtalk radio today at 11:00 PST (1:00 CT) to talk about why it’s hard to forgive, and the incredible freedom you find when you do. I hope you’ll join us! (To listen, click here!)

Has anyone ever told you that forgiving is easy?

Maybe forgiving the guy who acted like a fool on the highway isn’t too hard, or forgiving the lady who jumped in line ahead of you at the grocery store. Butwhat if someone has harmed you or a family member? What do you do then? How do you forgive? 

I’ve been digging deep into the topic of forgiveness. I’ve lived it and discovered that there is incredible freedom in living a life of grace and mercy. But it’s not something that you just find along the way. It’s a purposeful intent to move beyond the burden and restrictions of bitterness, anger, rage, or unresolved emotions tied to a person or event.

Forgiveness is a bridge I thought I had crossed, but the deeper I delved into the meaning of the word forgiveness, the more I realized how much work remained in my own heart.

I discovered that there were several different meanings of the word, forgiveness. Eureka! That’s why it is so hard when someone tosses out the words, “Just forgive!”. Because they may be talking about forgiving an uncouth neighbor, when the kind of forgiveness you need has to come from Someone bigger than you, because the hurt is too large.  I found this word as I studied: 

Xariðzomai [Greek]: translated Charizomai  – 1) to frankly forgive; 2) to give graciously, give freely, bestow

it’s the word Jesus used when He looked down at the men who had put Him on the cross, and said, “Forgive [Charizomai] them, for they know not what they do.”

I sat with friends about a year ago to hear their story. I loved their 22-year-old daughter. She’s a young woman with a feeding tube, unable to communicate in words, and in a wheelchair. I asked if they could share her story. 

Hearing it broke my heart. (more…)

Dear friend…

February 1, 2010 | dear friend, faith, feelings, live free

Dear Suzie,

I’ve been following your blog and your FB page. If you were to describe me I’d say I have religious leanings, but I usually fall to the other side in my day to day life.

I’m not like you. The truth is that I probably won’t fit, not in the way I dress, talk, act. But I want God.

You’ve been talking about being in the crossroads. I guess that describes me, right? So, what now?

DM (more…)

holy discontent

January 21, 2010 | dear friend, faith, feelings, live free, ministry life

Have you ever felt it? You want something, but you don’t know what it is. It’s right under the surface and it won’t go away, so you do other things to cover it, or you push it aside.

It’s holy discontent. You might feel stuck spiritually. It may have been a very long since you felt God.

Oh, Suzie, don’t give me that emotional stuff. You don’t have to feel God to follow Him.

I do. I have learned to trust Him in the times that I don’t feel Him. I have learned to dig deep into the experiences of the past that remind me of God’s faithfulness. I have learned to lean on Scripture and the promises within.

But I need to feel God, His presence, His strength.

I want to feel Him, and there have been times (many) that I’ve had to stop and find the source of that holy discontent.

That’s exactly what happened the day I stood in the ballroom of the hotel at the She Speaks conference as my friend and Proverbs 31 Ministries founder, Lysa TerKeurst spoke.

(To see the original devo that started this crossroads discussion, click here.)

I was discontented. I had been for a while. Like King David in Psalms 51:12 I was praying, “Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me”. I needed Him. I had allowed some really meaningless things to take the place of intimacy with God. I still talked to Him. I still loved Him. But I knew there was more because I had experienced more. I had misplaced something very valuable and I needed it back.

I remember standing there in a room of 700 and it was as if I was alone with God. I held back, waiting for the final amen so I could escape to the prayer room. I didn’t care who was in there. I didn’t care if people saw that I was part of the team. All I knew is that I needed to get alone with God.

It was a course correction of sorts.

Holy discontent is a beautiful gift. It’s the Holy Spirit, the One who knows you and the heart of the Father drawing you closer, stopping you in your tracks and reminding you that there’s more to being a child of God than church, more than committees, more than writing books, more than teaching, more than being just being moral or good.

Maybe you are connected. Maybe you are right in the heart of His plan, and you still feel holy discontent. This is a prayer today for you and for me.

I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will give you mighty inner strength through his Holy Spirit.  And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts as you trust in him.

May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love really is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it. Then you will be filled with the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

Now glory be to God! By his mighty power at work within us, he is able to accomplish infinitely more than we would ever dare to ask or hope. May he be given glory in the church and in Christ Jesus forever and ever through endless ages. Amen.

Ephesians 3:16-21 (New Living Translation)

crossroads: discipline

January 20, 2010 | faith, family, feelings, live free

Melissa and I stood toe to toe. She eyeballed me, looking me up and down.  “No!” she said, and then she tossed the dishtowel to the side.

I sighed. A four-year-old was getting the best of me.

It all started with a spilled glass of milk. No big deal at all. She was four. It was an accident. Lucky us, a little corner of the floor would be cleaner than the rest after we were through. I grabbed a dishtowel when I saw the glass knock over and milk splash on the floor.

“Let’s clean this up, baby,” I said.

I had this wild theory as a mom — that if we tackled stuff together it taught the children stuff like “let’s clean up our messes”, and yet they always knew that mom was there to help them. And it would be fun at the same time, right?

It worked with my other children. They bought into the idea that scrambling to pick up as many toys as you could in three minutes was fun, especially if mom made odd noises or played music, or you tried to dunk the toy in to the toybox with deadly aim.

But Melissa saw through my plan. (more…)