Amy's Oasis

" . . . we are also God's children, which means that we have great hope and potential - not hope that rests on our gifts, experience, or track record, but a hope that rests in Christ.  Because he is in us and we are in him, it is right to say that our potential is Christ!"

- Tim Lane and Paul Tripp, Relationships: A Mess Worth Making

All I am left with is Jesus.  Nothing else.  Nothing in myself, nothing in anyone I've ever known, nothing in any church or institution or country I've ever been in. 

I am so reminded of the story in Prince Caspian lately . . . of Eustace, who becomes a dragon by sleeping in a dragon's lair full of treasure, by forsaking those who cared most about him, by having the pride to forsake the journey and to lust after and feel he owned the jewels in the cave.  After many tears and heartaches, Aslan finally leads him to a pool, where he orders him to get undressed.  Layer after layer of scaly dragon's skin is peeled off.  The more Eustace peels the more he realizes that he will never get to the bottom on his own.  Finally, he is forced to let the great Lion dig in his claws and remove the last vestiges of the dragon . . . before plunging him into the pool where he is made whole once again, with skin as fresh as a newborn's.  

I resonate with Eustace in so many different ways.  At times I feel I am the dragon, able only to cry hot tears and do my best to communicate with poor scratches in the sand that constantly get erased by my clumsiness.  At times I feel I am constantly peeling off layer after layer, and yet am unable to get to the bottom.  At times I feel those claws digging into me, exposing me, leaving me painfully raw.  And . . . at times I feel that loving nudge, those healing waters closing over me, renewing me.

It is when there is nothing left of me . . . that all of You can shine in me. 

never, never just pick a store at random when you are lost and want to buy more minutes for your cell phone. You may just end up in another cell phone store where you are made the laughing-stock of the entire staff as you ask for directions to their nearest competitor.

On the other hand, you've just provided those poor worn-down people inside with a speck of amusment for quite some time, as well as a story to exaggerate when at family functions and hanging out with their buddies. You know, the kind where you are telling "the-one-that-got-away" kind of stories or playing a game of "Whose job attracts the most stupid people". Puts a new dimension on sacrificial love.

So . . . who thinks my hair is dyed?

******* *******

One of my friends used to be in the advertising business. She knows the secrets of the trade. I've seen her looking through magazines and clothing on websites and heard her exclaiming over and over, "That girl is so skinny!!! It's ridiculous!" She tells me that anyone could really be a model. Celulite? No problem - a little technology will leave your skin looking as new as a baby's. A size 10? All we have to do is alter those sides and make you an instant size 3. Scars covering those legs? No problem. A little makeup, the right light, and photo shop on steroids will make you beautiful.

I think everyone is dismayed to some extent at the havoc the fall has played on our bodies, our hearts, our personalities. We all worry what we look like to other people. We are all insecure about some part of us that we consider to be especially unattractive. (For some of us, that's more than one.) We don't quite live up to those models of perfection. (Those models don't even live up to those models of perfection.)

What's even funnier is that a lot of us want a model of perfection. Someone worthy of a magazine cover, or someone worthy enough to have had Proverbs 31 or I Timothy 3 modeled after them, or else someone who simply lives up to that model in our heads that we have imagined up ourselves. Someone who makes us feel good about ourselves.

Hosea contains a pretty ugly picture. There is a young woman - a woman who constantly and incessantly prositutes herself, who continually slips away to run after other men.

It also contains an incredibly beautiful picture. There is a Redeemer - a God who constantly and incessantly pursues her, who continually loves her dispite His holy wrath and her incomparable ugliness. He calls to her, "allures" her, speaks comfort to her, gives her a "door of hope" and a reason to sing. He gives her a new name and a new identity. He gives her the right to call Him her "husband". He betroths her to Him forever.

He gives her the opportunity to KNOW the LORD.

(Small detail: All this is said right after she "went after other lovers" (2:13) and forgot God.)

This is us - a people who are ugly in every way. This is us - loved. This is us - a people who can say, "Search me, O God, And KNOW my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; And see if there is any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting." (Ps. 139:23-24)

I say, with a picture that beautiful, who wants to be a model of perfection or have one for yourself? All that desire is is pure selfishness anyways. We live in a broken world, with broken people, each of which posess a broken heart. What could be more beautiful than simply being KNOWN completely, and yet still loved completely? What could be more beautiful than loving in this way? What could be more beautiful than KNOWING the LORD?

" . . . they did not know that I healed them. I drew them with gentle cords, With bands of love . . ." (Hosea 11:3b&4a)

" . . . Consider your big Fourth-of-July picnic. You live near Philadelphia, so it's only right to eat a burger in Ben Franklin's honor.  The sun is warm, the grill's working, the grass is mowed for softball, and everyone's bringing a Jelll-O salad.  But unknown to you, God wants it to rain.  He wants your frinds to go home.  He wants your brother-in-law Ed to help you hurry the grill into the garage where you two will stand leaning against the car, listening to the downpour.  There you'll get into a long conversation leading into spiritual things that will eventually lead to your brother-in-law's conversion.  Your brother-in-law's been thinking about God lately but he's a private man, hesitant to broach personal subjects, and needs an ideal time and setting.

How does God pull this off?  Miracle rain out of nowhere?  Something that baffles AccuWeater and brings the X-File team in to investigate?

No.  While it's still warm in your backyard, five miles above the air is starting to cool.  A miracle? No, a polar jet stream - bringing colder air from the northwest.  Dry and heavy, this air will drop, shoving the steamy air in your back yard upward.  Rising, it will cool, and its water vapor become clouds.  About three miles up, those clouds will make ice crystals.  Watch out.  Ice crystals get bloated from eating up nearby water molecules - too fat to keep floating.  They start falling as snow, but it's summertime, and by the time they hit your infield it's raining.

"Bye Smiths!  Bye, Wilsons!  It was fun while it lasted.  Sure, Ed, I could use some help carrying this thing."

Yet not long ago the jet stream was two-hundred miles north.  What shot it your way this particular weekend?  Something that happened three days ago - a jet-stream disturbance over the Canadian Rockies - a disturbance just right to send things Philadelphia-ward. And to get this disturbance "just right"?  A precise path of that jet stream over the mountains.  And to achieve that precise path? A complicated sequence of atmospheric twists from the earth's rotation and the proper Pacific Ocean water-temperature a day earlier.  Yet that temperature was being affected back in April - when the right amount of cloud-cover was letting in the right amount of sunlight.  Six thousand miles away and four years earlier, a volcano spewed ashes into the atmosphere that affected last April's cloud-cover.   And eleven years before that the sun was gearing up for its next sunspot cycle that eventually affected last April's Pacific temperature. 

God's been thinking about your brother-in-law for a long time.

Of course, sure-fire rain doesn't guarantee that Ed will show up at the picnic.  He had been looking forward to eighteen holes today.  But his golfing buddy's wife caught an ad this morning about the "Red, White, & Blue Sale" at Harry's Lawn & Garden, and immediately swore that her husband had seen his last hot meal until he gets himself over there and finally buys that lovely Comfo-Life lawn furniture that promises EASY ASSEMBLY WITHIN MINUTES.  So today God planted thoughts in a wife's mind and allowed advertisers to stretch the truth aboutr assembly-required by about - oh, say, five and an half hours - in addition to lining up nature in advance.  And God is doing the same with people all over the country who need a little rain, or sunshine, to further his work in their lives.

Totally natural.  Mind-bogglingly complicated."

- When God Weeps, Joni Earekson Tada & Steven Estes 

P.S. I took these pictures with my toe. :) Quite the talent.

Life is the equivalent of a whirlwind right now. I think the last time I actually saw the Bradfords (the people I live with) was briefly on tuesday night - and the time before that was on Sunday.  I forgot my keys last night and had to ring the doorbell, so I guess I did see Geoff briefly as he opened the door for me, and I actually saw sweet little Clay this morning as he opened the door for me on the way out and said, "Bye!  Bye - have a good day!  Bye you do-do!"

School is crazy, but in a good way.  I am definitely being stretched to my limit and learning what it is to both schedule my life and rely on God and on His power.  It has been amazing to me how much I have been able to absorb, even when I'm not feeling good, even when I feel discouraged, even when I am doing a lot of other classes at the same time.  The things I am learning are truly life-changing and an incredible blessing.  Psalms 23 and 16 have meant a lot to me lately . . .

 Psalm 16

Preserve me, O God, 

for in You I put my trust.  

O my soul, you have said to the Lord,

"My goodness is nothing apart from You.

As for the saints who are on the earth,

They are the excellent ones, 

in whom is all my delight."

Their sorrows shall be multiplied who hasten after another god;

Their drink offerings of blood I will not offer,

Nor take up their names on my lips.

O LORD, You are the portion of my inheritance and my cup;

You maintain my lot.

The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places;

Yes, I have a good inheritance.

I will bless the LORD who has given me counsel;

My heart also instructs me in the night seasons.

I have set the LORD always before me;

Because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved.

Therefore my heart is glad,

and my glory rejoices;

My flesh also will rest in hope.

For You will not leave my soul in Sheol,

Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.

You will show me the path of life;

In Your presence is fullness of joy;

At your right hand are pleasures forevermore. 

So, apparently I don't know how to link things in my post, so you can head down to my sidebar where Steve's name is and post your birthday greeting there.

Also, a sister in Christ has some concerns about protecting Marriage at her school which she wrote about two posts down.  If you have any Bible texts or references to help her out with presenting God's view in a secular environment, please post and pray as she presents next friday. 

Someone very special is celebrating his birthday today!  Please head over to Steve's blog and tell him how special he really is and how much we all praise God for him!  (I'm not alone in this, right . . .?)

We love you, Steve!