Tag: love

Just Do It

For every inclination we have to ‘do something,’ we have an equal and opposite inclination to not do it. Call it the physics of human impetus. Sometimes that is our conscience or the Holy Spirit warning us of the potential hazards of an action. Sometimes it is our lazy selfishness or fearful anxiety that prevents us from moving forward.

Nike is urging us to overcome that second form of inertia. Don’t let laziness or selfishness or fear or anxiety stop you from stepping out in faith. Just do it. Plant the garden, plan the trip, make the call, take that first step. Just do it. (In Nike’s case, put on their shoes and exercise!)

I have had people tell me that they want a garden, but they don’t have one. They don’t have the room or the time. They have tried and failed in the past. It seems like too much work. Growing something doesn’t necessarily involve a lot of work unless you choose to let it. You can grow tomatoes in a pot on your balcony. You can grow herbs on your kitchen sink. Yes, you will get your hands dirty on occasion, and you must remember to water your plant, but beyond that, how large and diverse a garden you have is up to you.

What is necessary is the decision to do it. Carve out space in your yard. Buy a pot and a starter plant. Set aside a time to water. If you are concerned, unsure if your inertia is fear or sensible caution, start slowly. One plant. In a safe place.

The beauty of God’s creation is that He made the seed with the desire to become a fruit-bearing plant. Our “work” is simply to let it do what it was created to do. Our work is to clear out those things which prevent that seed from becoming all that it can be.

Your relationship with God, Father, Son, and Spirit, your spiritual growth, the manifestation of the Holy Spirit’s presence in your life is the same. We can make it seem like a big, difficult, time-consuming thing and make excuses for why we don’t invest in that relationship. Or we can set aside a small space on our counter or on the balcony and plant that seed.

Pray. List your concerns. Tell God your hopes and fears. Read His word. Listen to his voice. Have a conversation with Him as you would with a close friend. Give the seed of His Spirit within you a little space to grow, a little water.

He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly before your God? Micah 6:8.

It’s not a long, complicated list.

We may look at someone else’s huge, beautiful garden and think we could never do that. That may be true. God may not be calling you or me to do that. But that should not stop us from growing basil on our windowsill. The fact that some are called to be missionaries in difficult situations should not stop us from taking ten minutes in the morning to sit and talk with God.

Just do it.

Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rains fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on that rock. Matthew 7:24-25.

Love in Christ, Betsy

Possibilities

A new year, a blank page, a barren garden – anything can happen. The possibilities are endless.

Will I repeat what I did last year or will I plant something new and different this year?

There have been years when it took all my effort just to repeat in some form what was done before. There have been years when I started the year tired and fearful of the days ahead. (A few years I started hungover…) There were years I dreaded what might fill the pages of my calendar, change I didn’t want but couldn’t stop from happening.

But this year, this new calendar, this barren garden speaks to me of possibilities.

And the one who was seated on the throne said, “See, I am making all things new.” Revelation 21:5.

As Christians, we don’t need to wait for a new year, a blank calendar page, or some indefinable point in the future. Today, in this moment, before the clock ticks the end of the year, God’s Holy Spirit is transforming us.

I am not the person I used to be. I am not who I was as a child, as a teenager, as a young adult, as a mother, last year, a few months ago, or even yesterday.

In my garden, garlic bulbs are forming underground, rocks are migrating to the surface, and nutrients are replenishing my soil. Just as the soil is being made new in my barren garden, so my life being made new every morning, every evening. The possibilities are endless.

No matter what I have planted in the past, I can plant something different this year. Or plant the same things in a new and better way. I can choose to keep the plants and methods that work and change the ones that don’t.

What a gift! Have you made bad decisions in the past? Today is a new day. Do you have regrets? Fears? Doubts? Has guilt or shame or doubt left you crippled and unable to move forward?

Jesus said to him, “Stand up, take your mat, and walk.” John 5:8.

Leave that place of limited possibilities. God has healed you. God has given you a new day, a new year, a barren garden. Go and plant new seeds, grow new things, become a new person, healed and able to move forward through the grace of God.

So, if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation. Everything old has passed away, see, everything has become new! All of this is through God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. 2 Corinthians 17-18.

Happy New Year, friend. Happy new day, happy new garden.

Love in Christ, Betsy

Merry Christmas!

I trust that everyone is celebrating Christmas in some form or fashion today. Maybe with family gathered around a table. Maybe in a darkened sanctuary lit only by candles as you sing Silent Night. Maybe in the noisy chaos of children dressed in robes with halos tilted as they run down the aisles between the pews.

Celebrations can be quiet and still or noisy and boisterous, but we have something to celebrate.

I was surprised to learn that Christmas was not a recognized holiday in the US until 1870. The Puritans considered it unbiblical and potentially pagan; their influence lasted a long time. The timing of celebrating Christmas was certainly pagan-driven. Constantine, Holy Roman Emperor, set the date to give his subjects a more thoughtful and spiritual way to observe the winter solstice celebrations common in the late 300s.

Because the Saturnalia celebration lasted for twelve days, it became common for Christians to celebrate the twelve days of Christmas. Instead of seeing this as somehow despoiling Christmas, I see this as God’s amazing ability to reach us where we are and speak to us in a language we understand.

We often strive to create explanations for things we don’t understand. We sense there is more to the world around us than our five senses tell us, so we reach for explanations. A pantheon of gods, ghosts and spirits, and the current favorite, aliens. I firmly believe that God in His infinite wisdom and power, will use these ideas to lead us down the path to Him if we let Him.

When you search for me, you will find me, if you seek me with all your heart. Jeremiah 29:13.

For some people, the celebration of Christmas has returned to its pagan roots. It’s all about food and gifts and merrymaking. It is about family and friends. Hopefully, for Christians at least, it also about more than that.

It is about the creator of the universe coming to us in all our filth and squalor and complications and emotions and messiness and living with us here. He meets us in our doubt and fear and anger and distrust and greed. He sits with us as we weep and scream. He washes our feet and heals our wounds. He forgives our rage and selfishness and teaches us to love each other. How beautiful is that!

Take a moment today to sense God’s presence beside you, within you, right at this very moment. You too carry the Son of God within you. You, like Mary, can birth His Spirit into the world around you.

The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them. Luke 2:20.

May we do the same today, friends. Alleluia, Christ is born!

Love in Christ, Betsy

Holiday Spirit

Are you listening to carols on the radio? Have you bought all your presents? Are they wrapped? Are you headed to a Christmas party or luncheon or gathering? Do you have your festive clothes laid out? Have you made cookies? Is your mantle decorated? Are you in the Christmas spirit?

I am exhausted just writing this! Do I have time to write this? Do you have time to read it?

We all know that this is not what the true Christmas Spirit is, all this hustle and bustle and decorating and eating and gifting. But the pull is strong. We remember our friends and family and want to celebrate with them. We want to hear that glorious music, and the fun, silly songs as well. We want to cry when Clarence gets his wings and laugh at the leg lamp. We want to make those cookies with Grandmother’s recipe. We want to don our red and green attire and sip champagne.

All of this is wonderful if exhausting.

There have been Christmases when I was better at finding the quiet moments to contemplate the incarnation of God. There have been Christmases when I never found that moment, never took that moment.

I was at a lovely Christmas luncheon the other day and a young couple was entertaining us. In the middle of their rendition of “All I want for Christmas is You,” a wave of grief overtook me. Fortunately, all eyes were on the singers as my throat constricted and the tears threatened to roll down my cheeks. I can’t have what I would really like, at least not in this life. My husband is gone; my heart is broken and empty.

Perhaps that’s what all this merry making is about, filling the void in our hearts.

“What else does this craving, and this helplessness, proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace? This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there the help he cannot find in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words by God himself.”
– Blaise Pascal, Pensées VII(425), 1672

This was true 350 years ago and it is true today. We cannot find happiness with the Spirit of Christmas. We can only find happiness, joy, and meaning, with the Spirit of Christ.

We will put our holiday decorations away in a few weeks, send our families back to their own homes, and try to lose the extra pounds we gained eating all those cookies. We’ll shift our thoughts from commemorating 2025 to embracing 2026. But that hole in my heart will still be there unless I invite His Holy Spirit to fill it.

Do you sense Him calling you? In the middle of all the celebrating and hustle and bustle, do you hear the still, small voice of God calling you?

Listen! I am standing at the door knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come into you and eat with you and you with me. Revelation 3:20.

And not just for a Holiday meal, forever.

And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age. Matthew 28:20.

Are you in the Christmas Spirit? Take a moment this season and let the Spirit of Christ be in you. That is the only way that the infinite abyss of our hearts can be filled.

Love in Christ, Betsy

A Mouse in the House

I was watching tv the other night when a mouse ran across the hardwood floor in front of me. I froze. My blood pressure skyrocketed, and I felt my heart in my throat. Disgust gripped me over this two-inch mammal. It had to go.

For years I had cats. To be fair, I probably had mice then too, but the cats kept them at bay. When my last cat passed away at nineteen, I chose to replace my living room floors and furniture instead of replacing her. I finally have a fur and scratch free living room, but I also have a mouse.

I put out those friendly traps that supposedly poison the rodents, but this one seems immune. (At least I hope it is only one, although that sounds naïve.) I put out the ‘humane kill’ boxes and baited them to no avail. Every day I looked for signs of its presence and cleaned more of my kitchen, my closets, any potential hiding place.

And still, I would catch glimpses of it running down the hall, triggering my panic response. At night, my dreams would be nightmares of mice. (If only a nutcracker prince would kill them all!)

I finally laid down those sticky pads in multiple corners and around all the bait traps. It worked, but slowly. What a horrible way to die. Despite my aversion to rodents, I felt sorry that it had to die that way, stuck in place. But nothing else worked. And it had to go. For my sanity; for the cleanliness and sanctity of my home.

Do you think God looks at our sin that way?

There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that run to evil, a lying witness who testifies falsely, and one who sows discord in a family. Proverbs 6:16-19.

Do you think He tries to rid His house of these things? Not just his church, but me, one of the houses where His Spirit lives? When I look at another with ‘haughty eyes,’ with disdain and contempt, does His pulse race and His stomach turn? When I ‘embellish the truth,’ does He set out traps to catch me in my lies? And when I ‘outsmart God’ in His attempts to humanely rid my life of sinful ways, is He left only painful and miserable ways to get rid of them?

I hope that I can be diligent in cleaning out my internal closets and cupboards. I pray that God will show me the evidence, the signs of sin’s presence in my life. And having seen my actions through God’s eyes, I pray God gives me the strength to keep my sin at bay.

My apologies if you are one of those people who decorate for Christmas with cute little stuffed mice dressed in holiday garb. I know at some level that mice are just doing what they do, that they enter my home for warmth and food and safety from hawks. But this is not the place for them. My home will not be a sanctuary for mice.

And my life will not be a sanctuary for sin and demons. I want my life to reflect God’s love for me, for you. I, like those football players, want to say. “First, all glory goes to God our savior.” I want to get rid of my sin for my sanity, for the cleanliness and sanctity of my home.

Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts. See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in a way everlasting. Psalm 139:23-24.

I may get a cat in the spring. I could use help keeping the rodents out of my home. I thank God for the Holy Spirit to help me keep the sins out.

Love in Christ, Betsy

Planting Garlic

I planted my garlic this past weekend. It’s got me thinking about the seeds we plant in the “off season,” when all the focus is elsewhere.

December is a time when I am consumed with gatherings – family, friends, every group of which I am a part gathers this time of year. Ostensibly to celebrate the birth of Jesus the Christ, but usually just for the opportunity to dress up and gather, eat, drink, and perhaps exchange gifts. It’s a time to celebrate here and now, our family and friends. Anything beyond the here and now tends to focus on the past, childhood memories, family traditions.

The church calls this time Advent, the coming, and encourages us to look forward. We are asked to prepare ourselves in anticipation of the wonders God is about to perform. He planted a seed, the unformed nucleus of God enfolded into a perishable body, which grew into a man and lived among us for thirty-some years. He gave us a small child who changed the world, whose Spirit continues to change the world.

The word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory of the father’s only son, full of grace and truth. John 1:14

This is the week when I put away the pumpkins and fall colors and bring out the red and green. (I know, some of you are far ahead of me on this task.) And, in the middle of this, I planted garlic bulbs that I won’t dig up until summer.

Garlic cloves need to be planted after the first frost and before the ground is frozen solid. Like many bulbs, they need to spend a season underground in the cold, storing up nutrients and preparing themselves to grow. Unlike my sugar snaps and tomatoes, I need to plant garlic long before its growing season. I plant in the cold looking forward to the hot sun and lazy days of summer.

God planted a seed in my heart as well when I was cold-hearted and consumed with my immediate needs and wants. That seed took a long time to bear fruit in me. Now I think of the seeds that I have planted, that I am planting in my own life and in the lives of those around me. It may seem pointless, burying a seed in the cold and dark and trusting that God will transform it into fruit for His kingdom. But that is how seeds work.

Amid all our celebrating and gathering and living our lives, we can take a moment to plant a seed, a seed of love, a seed of kindness, a seed of connection. We can trust that God can transform that seed into a relationship with Him, even if we never see it or know of it.

This is Advent, the coming of Christ into the world. Not only as a one-time event two thousand years ago, but also as a daily event here and now. Christ comes to live with us, within us, within those around us. Perhaps all that is needed to sense His presence in the world is for us to take a moment and plant a seed.

You have been born anew, not of perishable but of imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God. 1 Peter 1:23.

I hope to plant more than garlic this Advent season. I hope to plant love. I hope God uses me to answer someone’s prayer. I pray that another will see how much God loves them through my words and actions.

Gather in celebration this Advent. Gather in love and plant some seeds.

Love in Christ, Betsy

Give Thanks

I am grateful to live in a country that intentionally sets aside a day to give thanks. As humans, we often let the day devolve into a day of political arguments, old scores, and overdoing it. I. like the biblical Martha, tend to focus on logistics and preparation and miss the important thing.

God gives us this day, this food, our breath, what little strength we have. (Deut. 8:11-18) God gives us the opportunity to live in communion with Himself, the giver of all good things, the creator of the universe, and the Lord of heaven’s armies.

This is the true gift for which I want to give thanks:

The word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory of the father’s only son, full of grace and truth. John 1:14

who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself. Philippians 2:8

He calls us to “abide with him.” (John 15)

Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me…remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age. Matthew 28:16,20.

So,

If we have died with him, we will also live with him;

if we endure, we will also reign with him;

if we deny him, he will also deny us;

 if we are faithless, he remains faithful – for he cannot deny himself. 2 Timothy 2:11-13.

Thanks be to God! His faithful love endures forever!

Love in Christ, Betsy

Tarps

For as long as I have had a garden, I have had weeds in my garden. My husband and I designed our garden space around the dimensions of weed barrier cloth, but that only keeps the weeds suppressed under the cloth. They soon resurface. I have spent hot hours pulling weeds. I have paid others to pull them. I have even considered elevated beds so grass from my yard wouldn’t invade my garden space. Of course, I would have to fill the raised beds with weed-free dirt, which probably doesn’t exist.

My efforts may have kept weeds at bay or out of sight for a while, but they always come back. I know people who love to weed, love to see the pristine results of their daily diligence. But daily diligence is not my strong suit. I reserve what little talent I have for that to devotional time and brushing my teeth. Nothing else receives daily attention.

So, there have always been weeds in my garden.

I am trying something new (to me) this year – occultation taps. These heavy-duty tarps block sunlight, UV rays, and water. The white underbelly of the tarp heats the soil, so the weed seeds germinate, and then kills them, leaving you with a weed-free garden to plant. Fingers crossed.

I put the tarps over my garlic beds about a month ago while it was still warm. I plan to plant garlic within the week, so we shall see. I also covered the sugar snap beds. Although occultation is only supposed to take a few weeks, I will leave my sugar snap beds covered until I plant them in late February or early March. Hopefully, we will have enough warm days over the winter for the tarps to work.

These tarps aren’t cheap or particularly easy to manipulate. It makes me wonder about the lengths I will go to get what I want, without submitting to the proven method of daily weeding. Is this stubborn orneriness? And if so, where else does it raise its head?

If you have read my musings for long, you know that I often talk about weeds. Perhaps I should spend more time talking about the wonders and joys of having a garden. Just before I took the above photo, I picked five ripe raspberries and one ripe fig from my garden. A November gift. Sweet and juicy, they were a divine reminder of why I have a garden. The fruit is worthy of any and all aggravation.

When we talk about the Christian life, what do we talk about? Do we only talk about the joyous fruit of communion with God, the times when we sense His presence, feel His love, hear His voice? Or do we talk more about the struggle of not conforming to the world, of keeping the weeds of self-interest, pride, and irritation at bay?

Neither one tells the whole story. Because, like my garden, the Christian life contains both glorious fruit and troublesome weeds. Green pastures and valleys of shadows, wondrous feasts and the presence of enemies. (Psalm 23)

I fear we tend to emphasis one over the other. I know a woman who couldn’t go to her big screen church after her husband died because she didn’t feel joyous enough to worship God. I know a man who attends a church where discussion is discouraged and congregants are spoon-fed “correct” answers to complicated issues. And I know that I am prone to dive into the struggles and difficulties and fail to share the absolute joy I find in communing with God.

I look forward to a weed-free garden. Until then,

By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. John 13:35.

Love in Christ, Betsy

Salt

I’ve been thinking a lot about salt recently. A friend of mine has a dozen different colors and flavors of salt. I have Morton’s. We both use salt on a regular basis. I bet you do too. Salt is in everything, as those of who have had to limit its intake can attest.

Salt makes food taste better. It’s just a rock, a crystallized mineral. It takes no action on its own. It didn’t rise out the ground eight thousand years ago and tell the ancient Balkans, Bulgarians, and Chinese that it could change their lives. They found this mineral in springs and rocks. They experimented with it, tasted it, and rubbed it on the most recent animal kill. They let it dissolve in water and soaked their aging vegetables in it.

What an amazing and life changing gift from the earth, from God. And it is just there for our use. Sometimes just sitting in rocks beside streams for animals to lick on their way past. Sure, we humans have mined it, processed it, commercialized it, and fought over it. But that is because salt is vital and necessary to our survival.

Salt not only makes things taste better. It is an essential element, a necessary electrolyte to keep us healthy and functioning. Salt is used in brining and pickling and smoking and canning, allowing for the safe preservation of our food. We gargle salt to heal our mouth sores and soak in it to heal our wounds. Salt is also used in chemical processes, water treatment, land stabilization, and de-icing.

You are the salt of the earth. Matthew 5:13.

Can our mere presence make this much of a difference to the world around us? Can we, by simply being available, add flavor to other’s lives, preserve their dignity, enhance their lives, and cure their ailments? Are we an essential element in each other’s lives?

Salt can also corrode, destroy, and kill. It has long been used to eradicate weeds. Conquering armies would salt grain fields to prevent growth. I’ve heard it’s deadly to slugs. The salty breeze from the ocean destroys a/c units, corrodes paint, and rusts the chairs. Road salt eats away your car’s paint and makes the metal rust. Too much salt in your diet causes hypertension and can be fatal. Ingesting salt water can lead to hallucinations and death.

So, is salt a preserver or a killer? Does it enhance life or corrode it? As eager as we are to classify things as ‘good’ or ‘bad,’ salt is just salt. It is not making any moral choices or grappling with complexities. We slap those attributes on it based on what it feels like to us in the moment.

Some people struggle to say that God is good. How could such a loving God do such and so? He gives us life. He flavors it and enhances it and preserves it. At times He seems to destroy it. I can’t see the world as He sees it. I don’t think I even want to. God is God. I will not slap my moral judgement on His actions.

Jesus tells we are the salt of the earth and urges us not to lose our saltiness. The thing is that salt never loses its saltiness. It’s what it is. We sense it as “unsalty” when it has been diluted. With too much water, too much starch, salt can be absorbed by its environment. But it is still salt.

We are here to flavor and enhance and cure. We may be called upon to destroy – false gods, heretical beliefs, sin in our lives. We, His children, are salt. He sends us out into the world to be – salt.

You shall not omit from your grain offering the salt of the covenant with your God; with all your offerings you shall offer salt. Leviticus 2:13.

You are the salt, my friend. Not because you have made yourself salt, but because God made you salt.

Love in Christ, Betsy

Connected and Important

I inhale still morning air, damp with the overnight rain. Even the birds are quiet this morning, sleeping in, observing the sabbath. Or maybe it’s just too early. The cloud cover keeps the sun hidden and the cooler temperatures urge us to nestle in our beds.

The smell of summer has passed. No tart tomato leaves or scents of wild onions or grass clippings. The air is damp and dying. Leaves gather and decay along the driveway. Soon the shorten hours of sunlight will bring out the vibrant oranges, reds, and yellows of the trees, but this morning there is only stillness, as if the world waits in anticipation, in preparation.

Sometimes I am brought to my knees by the amazing complexity of the world around me. Distant worlds that rotate while suspended in the air by unseen forces. Bumblebees and butterflies go about their daily tasks and thereby ensure the survival of thousands of plant species. Trees stretch unground, toss their seeds into the wind, and provide homes and nourishment for all kinds of animals.

What a gift to be part of this dynamic, interconnected, and diverse community! What a blessing to stand in my yard and sense how God makes us all dependent on each other, on all His creation. I am every bit as much a part of His endless creation as the blades of grass, the trees, and the bumblebees. And the animals that live all around me – birds, and possums, and squirrels, and mice, and ants, and worms, and gnats. As well as the hundreds of different plants that grow at my feet, in the hedgerow, along the creek, in the creek. The world, the world in which He put us, is an amazing place.

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come into his presence with signing. Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Psalm 100:1-3.

One of the things that science has discovered is that even the tiniest, most insignificant creatures in nature are vital to the health of the planet. The worms, the microbes, the fungi, the bees. Even the scary, bad ones. If you haven’t seen the story about the reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone, watch it here now. Wolves changed the ecosystem, the landscape, and the biodiversity of Yellowstone.

Each of us, every person, every animal, every insect and bird, every plant, has a role in God’s earth. We are not merely tamers of it or custodians of it or savers of it. We are part of it. The eye cannot say to the foot, “I have no need of you.” (I Corinthians 12:21)

I’m not making a political statement. I am just awed by how God made us all interconnected and interdependent. God is an all-powerful creator who made galaxies and volcanic mountains. God also designed delicate flower petals, created intricate designs in snowflakes and spider webs, and developed complex DNA stands and molecular structures. He is concerned with all the little things that work together to create the big picture.

I dare say that He is concerned with how you spend your day today, with how I spend my day.

We are a part of his creation, a small but significant part. We can acknowledge that or pretend that our lives don’t matter, any more than the life of a bumblebee or a wolf matters, or the leaves on a tree matter. They do. They have a purpose. You have a purpose. I have a purpose. We are all important in the intricate, beautiful, and awe-inspiring thing called life on this earth.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him, bless his name. For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness is to all generations. Psalm 100:4-5.

Love in Christ, Betsy