Satisfied With Scraps?

Good morning…

From a retrospective distance, moving from life phase to life phase may seem seamless, but in the middle of leaving behind “what was” while waiting precariously for “what will be,” we often struggle to be satisfied with the scraps of “what is.” As I have shared with you before, I hit my deepest time of depression in 2003 and 2004. After our young family of six left the small town life of my dreams in New Wilmington, Pennsylvania, I waited and waited and waited in pruned back pain before a new life slowly began sprouting in Atlanta, Georgia.

I was not the only one missing our old life. Our oldest son, then eight years old, had left behind his best, best buddy. Trying hard to make new friends, he was struggling to fit in. My lonely heart had to hold herself back to give space for his tears to freely flow. I remember sitting on his bed listening to his loneliness, night after night, week after week. Six months into our new life phase, Christmas came rolling around. My husband and I came up with a plan to help ease our family’s painstaking transition from old to new. Steve wrote about our experience in this week’s chaplain devotional sent out from The Lovett School.

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Acts 3 Devotional by Rev. Steve Allen, January 28, 2019

Perhaps the greatest Christmas memory for our family came a number of years ago when our kids were 2, 4, 6, and 8 years old. All the gifts had been opened and there was nothing left under the tree. Everyone thought Christmas was over. However, we had stealthily run a bit of green yarn around the house and down the stairs. We told the kids to follow the yarn. All four of them followed the meandering path to one final gift that was awaiting them in our new basement. When they opened the door they found… a puppy. I highly recommend giving a puppy as a Christmas gift to your children at least once in their lifetime, just to see their reaction. You can then give the dog to a neighbor if you don’t want the hassles of pet care, but the joy on Christmas morning is totally worth it.

Part of what made the gift so great, in addition to the fact that it was a puppy, was that our kids figured they’d gotten all they were going to get. The puppy was a bonus. It was more than they’d expected. It was more than anything they could’ve imagined or hoped for.

In the 3^rd chapter of Acts a man “lame from birth” sat at a gate asking for alms. Alms in the tradition of the time were charitable acts of kindness; typically small amounts of food or money. The man seemed to know that he could count on getting at least a few coins or enough food to sustain him until the next day when he would do it all over again.

But the story tells us that something amazing happened on that particular day.

“One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, at three o’clock in the afternoon. And a man lame from birth was being carried in. People would lay him daily at the gate of the temple called the Beautiful Gate so that he could ask for alms from those entering the temple. When he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked them for alms. Peter looked intently at him, as did John, and said, ‘Look at us.’ And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, ‘I have no silver or gold, but what I have I give you; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk.’ And he took him by the right hand and raised him up; and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. Jumping up, he stood and began to walk, and he entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God.”

The man wanted a few scraps of food or a couple of coins, what he got instead was the ability to walk. Sometimes I think we undersell what God can do; asking for alms when something so much greater is possible. We’re satisfied with some socks and underwear on Christmas morning when in reality a puppy awaits.

A relationship with God is intended to open us up to a world of so much more than that which our minds can fathom. While I don’t think this means we can expect God to give us all that we’ve ever wanted, cars and boats or even healing what ails us, I do think it means that the power of God is greater than we give it credit for. When Peter said ‘I have no silver or gold, but what I have I give you; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk.’ he seemed to be saying, “What you want are a few earthly scraps, what God offers you is so much more.”

This week I invite you to join me as we pray to our God whose power is greater than that which we can imagine or hope for. And may we trust in that power to provide for more than our earthly needs.

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Being greeted at our new front door by a puppy’s joyful presence, sharing feelings with our girl-dog Sport during private finger-to-fur moments, and the silliness and laughter of puppy playtime helped to ease our family’s gradual transition into a new life phase. Somewhere in the midst of our second year, God took me by the right hand and raised me up from my grieving loneliness. My son also began making lifelong friends. Sometimes God’s abundant healing feels “immediate,” but most times God’s growth feels excruciatingly slow. As our family waited in the dark beginnings of a brand new life, our inner feet and ankles were mysteriously made strong. With the help of a puppy, when the time was right, our souls jumped up, stood, and began to walk. Now fifteen and a half years later, walking and leaping in our new hometown of Atlanta, Georgia, we praise God for everything.

The revelation of God is whole and pulls our lives together. The signposts of God are clear and point out the right road. The life-maps of God are right, showing the way to joy. The directions of God are plain and easy on the eyes. God’s reputation is twenty-four-carat gold, with a lifetime guarantee. The decisions of God are accurate down to the nth degree (Psalm 19:7, MSG).

…Sue…

P.S. My husband Steve still has a handful of spaces available on his trip to Israel this summer. Currently in the group are men and women, from all life phases, from 20-somethings to 70-somethings. If you are interested in receiving “abundantly more” from a firsthand following of Jesus’ footsteps, please check out this information and reach out to Steve.