Living Well (despite Nabal)

Welcome if you are stopping by after reading my devotion about Abigail. Let me tell you how I first "met" her.

When I first came to Christ, I found a small mom & pop owned Christian bookstore around the corner from my apartment. It had been there all along, but I'd never known quite what it was. Its name, Fishers of Men, sounded like a seafood market to me. Which was odd, I thought, for a city in the mountains.

And I didn't eat seafood then, unless hush puppies count.

Once I understood the name's reference, I spent a lot of time and money in that shop, reading nearly every book they had. At one point the owners invited me to just sit on the floor and read - I think they were afraid I'd spend my entire college-girl budget there and not have any food to eat!

One of the books (I bought this one) was called All the Women of the Bible. It was a reference book of sorts, listing out each biblical woman, telling the meaning of her name and the highlights of her life. It was in these pages I first met Abigal - I was taken by her story.

My new-to-Christ, state college attending, liberal arts learning, steeped in plenty of feminist thought self couldn't believe how she acted. It wan't that I was amazed that he was so kind, but that she was ABLE to be that nice to that man in those circumstances.

I was pretty sure I couldn't have acted like Abigail had I wanted to. And, for the record, I didn't want to. I wanted her to clobber her no-good husband Nabal!


And yet I was impressed that she didn't. How could she not?


My tendency back then - and sometimes even now - is to withhold love, help, forgiveness or grace unless or until the other person deserves it in my eyes.

And that's a choice that I make. Abigail's life teaches me that I can be the sort of woman - wife, mother, daughter, friend - that God calls me to be, despite how others around me behave.

I can be who I want to be - who I am in Christ - even if that lets them off the hook in some way.


Let's look at it this way...

Did Nabal benefit from Abby's goodness without being deserving of those benefits? Yes. But isn't God often good to us without our deserving it? And isn't God deserving of our obedience to be kind and to love our neighbors and enemies, even if those neighbors and enemies are jerks? (Yes.)

And here's another one to consider, don't we deserve to be women of virtue despite how others choose to see us or treat us?

The answer again is YES.

We deserve to lead God-honoring, bless-worthy lives regardless of our circumstances, income level, marriage status, crazy partner, physical flaws, lack of stable upbringing, wayward family members, or anything else. We can make Abigail's same choice to rise above our circumstances and live well.

Because choosing humility and wisdom allows God to shape our character and our circumstances.

___________________

If you'd like to enter to win a signed copy of my book It's No Secret leave a comment this weekend. I'll draw and announce a winner on Monday.

Feverishly typing

FYI : This week I am in the throes of completing a book manuscript for my publisher. So I may be a little quiet around here.  All my creative juices are going elsewhere. I know you'll understand. And I hope you'll pray for the project.

If you are local and you see me with my keyboard this week in the public library, the Salt Shaker cafe, Port City Java or Barnes and Noble, please don't interrupt. Unless you come bearing decaf. Or chocolate. And you are ready to read drafts of my chapters and give me feedback. :)

But if we're at the public library, don't offer a latte or to chat about my chapters - I understand they highly frown on both of those things there. Nonetheless, it's my current "happy place" to write from.

Hope you have a great week! And I've love for you to pause and say a little prayer for this project.

To be the created

On Wednesdays I post something related to My One Word for the year. This year that word is CREATE.

Early this morning during my quiet time I was huddled up on my bed with all my favorite blankets and pillows reading my large print (in other words way huge and way heavy) Life Application Bible in the New Living Translation. 

I was in Isaiah 45. And the words create, creates, makes, created, and Creator were all over the passage.

God is addressing a ruler named Cyrus - the only Gentile ruler in the Bible said to be anointed by Him. God tells Cyrus that He is using him and orchestrating Cyrus' life for His own glorious purposes. Indeed, Cyrus - gentile ruler of a vast empire - allowed Jerusalem to be rebuilt and allowed the exiles to be set free with no strings attached. That was unheard of. Few kings of Israel or Judah had done as much for God's people.

Then God "has a talking to" as we say in the South with Cyrus in this chapter. It seems God was intent on shushing any of Cyrus' complaints about why he was created, or how he was created ... why he was used or how he was used ... or the circumstances of his life both good and bad.

Can't we all use a talking to like that from time to time?

Read Isaiah 45:1-15 online or in your Bible. Here's some excerpts:

vs. 7  "I create the light and make the darkness. I send good times and bad times. I, the LORD, am the one who does these things."

vs. 9   "What sorrow awaits those who argue with their Creator. Does a clay pot argue with its maker? Does the clay dispute with the one who shapes it, saying, ‘Stop, you’re doing it wrong!’Does the pot exclaim, ‘How clumsy can you be?’"

vs.10  "How terrible it would be if a newborn baby said to its father, ‘Why was I born?’ or if it said to its mother, ‘Why did you make me this way?’"


This is one of those passages that reminds me I am the created.  It reminds me that God has a total sovereign right to do anything He likes with my life. And I have exactly no rights to complain about it. My pastor and current co-author Mike Ashcraft is fond of saying, "If God created life, He alone gets to define it."

This is one of those passages that shuts my mouth - which is a really good thing. It's centering to be still and quiet before your God - receiving His loving reorientation (a "talking to") and reaching a place of peace about your lot in life. 

Which for Cyrus was a really good lot all in all. 

And for me it is as well. I am humbled and even slightly teary cocooned here in my blankets as I reach that conclusion. It is good and freeing to be the created - in the hands of a merciful God.

After all, in Isaiah 44:21-22 He says:

“Pay attention, O Isreal, for you are my servant. I, the LORD, made you, and I will not forget to help you. I have swept away your sins like the morning mists. I have scattered your offenses like the clouds. Oh, return to me, for I have paid the price to set you free.”

_________

Do you have someone that holds you accountable for spending time reading the Bible regularly?  I have a group of three gals that do this for me. Meet one of them here and learn more about how that works for us.

Caution: Pink Dog on Board

My middle school daughter will wake up today to find a big pink stuffed dog clutching an "xoxo" bone in it's mouth sitting on her dresser.  It's super soft and super cute.

When she comes downstairs she will find another giant pink dog - this one a long "wiener dog" that says, "I love you this much" down the side. It will be sitting in her seat at the kitchen table. In the bay window that's currently adorned with Valentine clings.

She'll find a total "sugar cereal" as I call them sitting on the kitchen table beside her bowl. Beside it will be a heart-shaped card and a pack of gum. And she'll find a Valentine cupcake packed in her lunch bag today.


None of these things are things I would normally do. I don't let my kids have "sugar cereals" before school. And I rarely pack desserts in their lunches - I'm kind of a stickler about good nutrition, especially during the school day. (I do let them have dessert after dinner though!)

When she told me she wanted a big stuffed animal for Valentines, my knee-jerk thought was, "Really? That's the last thing I need to buy you."  She already has a lot of stuffed animals.

But then I saw it from another angle. I can refuse to buy her the giant stuffed animal she wants, deeming that frivolous or unnecessary. But I have distinct memories myself of wanting to win the giant stuffed animals at the amusement parks. What is it about people-sized plush bears? And what is it about adults that forgets what it is about giant plush bears? 

And from yet another angle, I don't want her to feel she needs a boyfriend in order to receive Valentine's gifts.  And sure I could let Valentine's go by without packing her a pink sugar-sprinkled, white sugar-iced chocolate cupcake in her lunch. Tell her she can have it at dinner. But then she'd watch all the other kids eating their red dye #12 treats today and she would feel deprived. Maybe one of her friends would share their heart-shaped cookies with her but that's not what I want either.

I want to be the one who surprises her and satisfies her wishes. I want her to feel no need to look outside our home to feel fully loved. And so, I drove home yesterday accompanied by two giant pink dogs. And I couldn't have been more thrilled.

Sometimes you have to buy twice as many of the thing you didn't want to buy in the first place because that's what you really want.

What Valentine suprises are up your sleeve today?