A Chance at Holiness

Who is our neighbor?  I teach at a technical college and am oh so aware of my need to treat my students as my neighbors.  I have asked the Lord to show me how to love them.  Usually within the first week of the quarter I know which ones are going to need extra loving.  Unfortunately, those are the ones that are the most difficult to love, the most needy, the most irritating, the most demanding.  So how am I going to find a way to love them?

          My attention was drawn a few weeks ago to a quote that I had copied some months ago and then forgotten.  It comes from a book entitled Ragman and Other Cries of Faith by Walter Wangerin Jr., given me by my son.  (By the way, I highly recommend the book.)

          This is the passage that has so grabbed me:

“The power to build up other human beings, or else to tear them down, no matter how menial the circumstance nor how quick the meeting—that is the power possessed by each member of the Body of Christ, and a mighty power, indeed.

          Every time you meet another human being you have the opportunity.  It’s a chance at holiness.  For you will do one of two things then.  Either you will build him up, or you will tear him down.  Either you will acknowledge that he is, or you will make him sorry that he is—sorry, at least, that he is there, in front of you.  You will create, or you will destroy.  And the things you dignify or deny are God’s own property.  They are made, each one of them, in his own image.

          There are no useless, minor meetings.  There are no dead-end jobs.  There are no pointless lives.  Swallow your sorrows; forget your grievances and all the hurt your poor life has sustained.  Turn your face truly to the human before you and let her, for one pure moment, shine.  Think her important, and then she will suspect she is fashioned of God.”

          So this is my personal challenge:  to see every contact, even those of a brief moment, as a chance at holiness.  Every contact with a student or a maintenance man or a fellow teacher is a chance for me to love my neighbor.  Who are the neighbors who will give you a chance at holiness?

                                                                      Faith Lamb

Seasons

Each season makes its mark on this earth. We know that summer can bring blistering hot weather, but also very beautiful sunsets. As fall approaches there are hurricanes in some areas, but also beautiful colors of the trees. The harsh cold weather of winter is hard to deny, but so is the beauty of fresh fallen snow.  As spring approaches with wind and rain, I look forward to the beautiful flowers and trees as they blossom.

Ecclesiastes 3:11-14 says “He has made everything appropriate in its time.  He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end. I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and to do good in one’s lifetime; moreover, that every man who eats and drinks sees good in all his labor – it is the gift of God. I know that everything God does will remain forever; there is nothing to add to it and there is nothing to take from it, for God has so worked that men should fear Him.”

Not unlike the seasons of the earth, our lives travel in and out of various seasons as God orchestrates His plan in our lives.  When I was younger and experiencing a rather hard season of my life, it was hard to live the truth I knew so well.  In this season of my life, I can see the beauty of God’s plan much clearer. As I look back and see His hand lovingly and perfectly orchestrating His plan, I prepare myself for what lies ahead. There is nothing better than a little R&R (Resting & Rejoicing).  Join me, won’t you?

Tina Laubscher

Spread His Fragrance

Have you ever considered how fragrance plays such a unique part in our lives?  I was thinking the other day of certain fragrances that pull me back – either to a place, or to a person. 

My grandfather was a pipe smoker and although there aren’t too many men who smoke a pipe anymore, I know that if I smelled that familiar sweet tobacco fragrance again I would be transported back to those lovely days spent in my grandparents' home.

Who can forget the distinctive smell of Crayola crayons?  That always carries me back to my childhood.  However, I have to say that our son “confessed” to us not so very long ago that he once pushed a piece of crayon so far up his nose that it eventually fell down the back of his throat!  Perhaps there’s more than one reason why I remember Crayola crayons!

“Sierra” is a fragrance that our daughter called “hers” some years ago and on those rare occasions when I’m spending time at a perfume counter I can never quite resist spraying my wrist with that particular perfume.  It reminds me so much of her. 

Not so long ago our Sunday school lesson led us to II Corinthians 2:14, where Paul shares that through us the Lord spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Him.  The next verse is so touching because it tells me that we are to God the fragrance of His Son.  

 I truly pray that the fragrance of my life is a joy to the Father and, to those about me, a sweet reminder of the Lord Jesus Christ.

***Carol Pappas

    

Not by Sight

Faith has been coming up in a lot of my conversations recently. According to the writer of Hebrews, "faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." (11:1). Jakob Dylan declares that "faith is believing what you see ain't so." Jennifer Rothschild, the author of our Wednesday night Bible study, says that "it takes just as much faith to bear a burden as it does to believe that it can be removed." I don't want to suggest that I'm putting Jakob Dylan and Jennifer Rothschild on the same plane as scripture, but these are the things I've been hearing and reading.

When we started this Bible study on faith, there was a page where we were invited to write down three areas in which we felt we were "walking in the dark" and in which we would have to "walk by faith, not by sight," as noted in 2 Corinthians 5:7. I wrote down two issues that I am dealing with now and one that I foresee for the future (as if I could foresee the future!)

I am so thankful to report that I can see God working in my life in these relatively small issues, and it gives me hope for the bigger things. This past week, I was responsible for planning field trips for two different groups. (I will just say right here that I love teaching. I love teaching, not going on field trips. But sometimes they intersect.) I was dealing with getting people into acceptable groups and making sure everyone knew what to do and where to go and how to get there. This may not sound like a big deal, but every teacher out there will sympathize.

One of our field trips was on Monday, when we had all that crazy weather. Every step of the way, Mr. Turner and I were saying, "Well, it's not raining yet." We made the whole trip in safety and almost completely without rain. About fifteen minutes after we returned to school, there was an announcement to bring everyone to the downstairs hallway for the tornado watch. Perfect timing. The second one on Wednesday didn't have the drama of bad weather, but it too was successfully completed with no problems and with commendable behavior from all our students. If God can get me through these small things, I know He can get me--and you--through much weightier issues.

We looked at John chapter 2 this week in Sunday School. The water was turned to wine as the servants obeyed Jesus. In Joshua, the waters of the Jordan parted when the priests by faith put their feet into the water. The ten lepers Jesus healed found themselves clean as they went on their way in obedience. Faith requires action. I don't understand just how it all works, but these are the things I am learning as I seek to walk by faith.

--Sherry Poff