Let there be light

My friend Kristen told a story about an experience she had in Peru last summer. One night she was lying in a hammock in the gazebo (I say “the gazebo” because many of us know the one)…and kinda dozed off in thought. When she came back to reality, she jumped, realizing the sun was gone and that she was swinging in complete darkness. As she recounted this story, she made a good point, “If you’ve never been in the jungle at night when there are no stars, I promise you it’s a new shade of black.” So, she finally climbed out of the hammock, grasped on to the railing of the gazebo, and prayed she would get back to her bunk safely.

That’s about the time a little dim light beamed across the gazebo. Kristen looked up (deer in headlights, I’m sure) and saw our friend Allison, leaning over the railing. “I thought you might be stranded out here. Want some help getting back?” Kristen couldn’t have been more shocked…or relieved.

“A dinky flashlight keychain had illuminated the entire gazebo, silenced my fears, and lit the walkway back to safety. Who knew that one light was capable of making such a difference in overwhelming darkness?” she said.

So maybe this is an über obvious illustration…but I like the story. And I love the picture of light in darkness that is weaved throughout Scripture…

2 Samuel 22:29
You are my light, O LORD; the LORD turns my darkness into light.

Isaiah 5:20
Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.

Isaiah 9:2
The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.

Daniel 2:22

He reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what lies in darkness, and light dwells with him.

Micah 7:8-9 (my favorite)
Do not gloat over me, my enemy! Though I have fallen, I will rise. Though I sit in darkness, the LORD will be my light. Because I have sinned against him, I will bear the LORD’s wrath, until he pleads my case and establishes my right. He will bring me out into the light; I will see his righteousness.

Luke 11:34
Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are good, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are bad, your body also is full of darkness.

John 3:19
This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.

John 12:46
I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.

Romans 13:12
The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.

Ephesians 5:8-14 (love this passage)
For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of light consists of all goodness, righteousness, and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said: “Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.

1 Peter 2:9
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

1 John 2:9
Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness.

God is light. He is the creator of the great lights—the sun to govern the day, the moon and stars to govern the night. He is the giver of light. His light shines forever. The heaviest downpours can’t extinguish his flame. The most raging storms can’t cut off his power. He is the eternal source of light.

He says to his people, “Follow me,” and “Be the light of the world.”

Who me?

Yes, you.

How?

Talk to me. And listen to my voice.

God, I feel darkness closing in around me. Hurting people surround me, those who are sitting in darkness. I know a little goes a long way, but I don’t even know how to shine a dinky keychain light in my realm of influence. I’m tired.

I know. You need mercy and help in your time of need. Come to me. Turn from evils, and turn to mercies that are new every morning. Flee what is wrong. Seek help. Everyone who seeks finds. Fight with yourself. Don’t justify things that I clearly name as evil. Don’t despair when you find evils within yourself. I love you. Come to me, and I will begin to teach you how to love.

Yes, LORD, walking in the way of your laws, we wait for you; your name and your renown are the desire of our hearts (Isaiah 26:8).

Balance

Just thinking about how important balance is in life...I'm reminded of it seemingly every day.

talking—listening
planning—doing
solitude—fellowship
action—reaction
heavy—light-hearted
temporal—eternal
spending—saving
earthly—ethereal
sensible—spontaneous
academic—practical

***

Never does a matter of balance exist between the spiritual and the real. The spiritual is real.

Now, let’s go do some Pilates. ;)

More than seven words

Simplicity. There’s a hunger for it these days…Apple is the prototypical example here, with all its clean, smooth, simple products and advertising. Google works too. White background. Bam. One word. And we’re done. Tiffany. Nike. Starbucks. This kind of branding genius is not what I’ll proceed to discuss here. Again, I want to clarify—this is not about simple versus busy/noisy/overloaded.

The object of frustration and hope I’m getting at is our use of language. Not only do we prefer seven words to 14, but we prefer the seven most basic, commonly understood, dumbed down words we can get our hands on. And that, I propose, is a problem.

Linguists have proven for centuries that we think because we have words, not the other way around. So, when words are virtually eliminated from our language, so is an element of thinking—and in turn, of understanding—in our lives.

This is evidenced in the music we listen to, in the movies we watch, on the billboards and magazines we read, and, (gulp) in our own conversations. How often do we actually come across a word we’re unfamiliar with? (Chirp, chirp…right?) Pretty sure the last time I heard a word in a song I didn’t know was in ’99. I was a freshman in high school and Shania Twain, bless her, was on the radio every five minutes singing, Man, I Feel Like a Woman! But there was that line—The best thing about being a woman is the prerogative to have a little fun (fun, fun). Prerogative. Pre-rog-a-tive. I learned a new word…one that to this day I can’t say without smiling (at least on the inside) at the thought of that silly Shania song.

Why should we have to bring our language down to the lowest common denominator in order for it to be “meaningful”? Why did Dasani change the copy on their water bottle wrappers from something thought-provoking about “reverse osmosis” to now, the plain “purification system”? Why do we allow our language to become dwindled and shriveled?

While Dasani’s marketing copy may have digressed, the language compromise is a much more serious tragedy among the Church. Why are we afraid of the word fellowship? And spirit? And body of Christ? And justify? And sanctify? Do they remind us of the baffling and incomprehensible and fearful things like the Passover, Crucifixion, and Resurrection (to name only a few)—those mighty acts of God which we struggle to understand because our childlike creativity (along with our vocabulary) has been corrupted and diminished? How about their function in revealing more about the character of God himself?

Madeleine L’Engle makes a good point: In the literary world, Christianity has pretty well replaced sex as the present pet taboo, not only because Christianity is so often distorted by Christians as well as non-Christians, but because it is too wild and free for the timid.

It’s rare for people talk about the things of God today. Even the most churchy people on the block seem to struggle to communicate about “the most important part of their lives” on a day-to-day basis, with friends, at restaurants, off the cuff.

This must change! We (Christians) talk about wanting to reach the world with the gospel message. We cannot settle for limiting our conversations about Christ to nothing more than the same words we use to describe our favorite band or our relationship with our best friend. There is an immense need for more!

Our hearts were made to be enlarged by Christ, and all while all of creation, fallen as it is, cannot adequately define his supremacy, I’m convinced there’s plenty of room to raise the bar.

I long for our generation to embrace God’s Word…even the tough, unpopular words in God’s Word. But it will take willing hearts and minds and the power of the Holy Spirit to stop this train of ignorance that’s charging downhill full speed ahead.

Generic, pop-culture language is simply insufficient in and of itself to describe our God. “God rocks.” Yes, he does. But that just doesn’t cut it when a seeking soul asks you what you think about God. This is why I believe the deliberate diminution of vocabulary is wrong; it cripples understanding. And the understanding of the Holy is worth our very lives.

I’m challenging myself to use more colorful language...to not be afraid to passionately utilize and break down those biblical words. And maybe even add some spice every now and then with references to the original languages of the Old and New Testaments.

Again, simple is one thing…a positive element, indicating organized thought free of complication. Length is not necessarily the point. I’m not suggesting we walk around spouting off dissertations! (Yikes.) It’s a matter of content. I’m simply encouraging colorful, rich, artful, liberated, biblical, informed articulation of faith. God help us.

What's in a Name?

Three reasons for the name of my blog—Story Hour...

“Since then you have been raised with Christ in God, set your hearts on things above. Set your mind on things above, not on earthly things. For you died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”
Colossians 3:1-4

The redemptive love story of Jesus Christ is the overarching story of my life. It’s the benchmark, against which everything in my life must be measured. All my experiences, relationships, opportunities, questions, desires, challenges…go back to this story.

“…and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.”
John 10:3

The gospel is as personal as it gets. It centers on a compassionate and just God who shows great concern for his people on an individual basis. There is nothing mechanical or routine about the way the Father relates to his children. Glory to God for anything good in my story.

My incredible momma, Donna Vaughn, is the Pre-K director in Paris, Tennessee. She spreads the love of Christ week after week with children and their parents. Every Monday morning, she has around thirty little ones for a time called Story Hour.

I am forever amazed by her pure love for God, her simple appreciation of the good, her ability to listen (I mean really listen), her care for the children she teaches, her commitment to FBC, Paris, her faithfulness to our family, her wisdom, and her constant prayers. Throughout my life she has encouraged me to express myself and to this day, she always wants to know my story. So, I do know of one person reading this right now…Momma, thank you. I love you! :)

Study Break

I’ll never forget my first day of seminary. I sat on the back row in my Old Testament class and Chad Hunsberger looked over and saw the tears spilling out of my eyes and down my face. Naturally, he asked, “What’s wrong?” I was simply overwhelmed with the opportunity I had been given—the luxury of studying God’s Holy Word—in a setting like that…with a professor rockin' the Ph.D., great books, and all these other people who were committed to Kingdom work. I had dreamed of going to seminary since middle school and there I was—in the first hour of my journey. I gave Chad a simple answer, but he got the point and said, “Wow. You don’t see that very often.” I just shook my head and thought, “Well I don’t know why not.”

A semester and a half later, here I am…mid-terms to study for, papers to write, not to mention the stresses of holding down a full-time job in the meantime. I confess that I’m struggling with weariness and the temptation to let my attitude slip into a state a few steps shy of gratitude. This translates further—I’m flooded with the temptation to settle into an academically based routine empty of the pleasure of genuine communion with God. No thanks. I want more intimacy with my Savior.

I need to bathe—to soak—in the Word. And I humbly depend on the Spirit to work in concert with God’s Word to “clean off my heart” (that’s how sweet Caroline…my cousin’s five-year-old daughter put it). Scripture is full of brilliantly colored, beautifully penned attempts to describe a love that is good beyond description. Just a few examples…



The Lord to Moses in Exodus 34:6-7…
The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.

The imagery in Hosea 2 (vv. 14-16, 19-20) is breathtaking...
Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her. There I will give her back her vineyards, and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. There she will sing as in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt. In that day, declares the LORD, you will call me "my husband"; you will no longer call me "my master." ...I will betroth you to me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion. I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will acknowledge the LORD.

Jesus’ prayer in John 17 (vv.22-24) brings me to my face…
I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.

This is the knowing of a lover, not a scholar. A scholar can be a lover. But a scholar doesn’t know God until he is a lover. This is one reason so many Christians become so impure. They don’t really know God—the true, massive, glorious, gracious, biblical God. “The humble intimacy and brokenhearted ecstasy—giving fire to the facts—is not there,” John Piper explains.

A stuffy glance and nod of the head from intelligencia doesn’t even get close. We’re talking about a deep gaze on lock…complete attention…a heart-pounding understanding that penetrates to the depths of one’s being. Knowing God means having ears to hear Jesus say, “I love you.” I echo the psalmist (Ps. 27:4)…One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple.

Piper said, “We were made to know Christ as he really is. We were created to comprehend—as much as a creature can—the supremacy of Christ…not the knowing of a hurricane by watching TV but by flying into the eye of the storm.” This is an incredibly adventurous knowing…it’s a love that propels us to shout it from the mountaintops…to tell people everywhere of our great God.

Ah! Bless the Lord, oh my soul! Praise the Lord for this truth. When my brain is fried, and my head hurts, and I just feel like toast, I find rest in the arms of my God. Thank you Father, Son, and Holy Spirit! I will praise you as you sustain me to finish this semester strong.

I think I’m ready to get back to work now. ;)

A Removable Tiara

A couple months ago, I was down in Florida for a class, and I stayed with my long-lost aunt, Tara Laine, her husband, and their precious twin boys.

Tara Laine and I shared some great late-night conversations (my favorite) that week. One night, she asked me about my love life. I stammered around and mentioned that I think I’ve developed more reasonable expectations for a relationship…and that I’m not looking for a Cinderella-esque story. “Princess stories just aren’t real,” I said.

She stopped me and said, “Now wait a minute…girls are princesses. That’s just how God made us.” I sat there, giving her open ears and an open mind…even though it wasn’t easy to restrain myself from blurting out something contrary. I’m glad I hushed. She continued, “The tiara just has to be removable. You are still a princess. You just have to be able to set the tiara aside sometimes, roll up your sleeves, and deal with stuff. But that doesn’t mean you throw it away!”

I got it. And I liked it. Sure, that’s partly because she’s telling me I can still be a princess. However, I think it’s also because it resonates on a deeper level and is a picture of how God made the human heart. Those of us who are believers are daughters and sons of the King, which also makes us heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, according to Romans 8:16. It would not be fair to stop there though. The verse I just mentioned has a conditional clause—“if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.”

We crave the marriage of suffering and glory whether we realize it or not…because it’s central to the redemption story of Jesus Christ that is written on our hearts.

It shows up on the silver screen week after week. Think Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers…
Theoden: A great host, you say?

Aragorn: All Isengard is emptied.

Theoden: How many?

Aragorn: Ten thousand strong at least.

Theoden: [astonished] Ten thousand?

Aragorn: It is an army bred for a single purpose: to destroy the world of men. They will be here by nightfall.

Theoden: Let them come.

And in the minds of the smallest child…
Mark Twain wrote in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, “In order to make a man or a boy covet a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to obtain.” The very fact that a trinket, a ball, or a girl’s attention is hard to get—makes it so very glorious and desirable to a little boy.

I want to break this down to a few personal examples…
Pretty sure wearing sparkly shoes is more fun on nights when I’ve been working outside in tennis shoes all day. And doesn’t a shower feel better after working out then when you’ve just been sitting around? Do you not treat with so much more care that which you worked many days to pay for? And isn’t time with your closest Christian friends richer when you’ve been very much “in the world,” sharing life and loving those who don’t know the Father?

We must be careful not to separate suffering and glory by elevating and glamorizing the idea of the glory alone. Love prevails in times of suffering just as in times of glory. God help us from reveling in our regalia and avoiding the vital part of the Christian life called suffering. Let’s not miss the whole point. My best friend, Sarah Michael, shared with me what John Piper said: “The pain of our shattered plans is for the purpose of his scattered grace.” Praise God. Piper also says, “God is most gloried when we are most satisfied in him during times of suffering, not prosperity.” I don’t think we can be reminded enough. Our flesh hates discipline and suffering. We wince at pain and can’t get enough comfort.

Trust me…I struggle with the prayers that flow from this truth and the implications this has for my own life. But I want true fellowship with Christ, and I’m pretty sure that means I need to know him in his sufferings…after all, no one has ever nor will ever suffer as much or to the extent that he did. He learned obedience through what he suffered (Heb.5:8). He was made perfect through suffering (Heb. 2:10). Therefore, we should see all the hardship and suffering that comes to us in life as something that God brings to us to do us good, strengthening our trust in him and our obedience, and ultimately increasing our ability to glorify him.

Now, when it comes to my love life…I’m definitely far from having it figured out, but I do think it’s safe not to run from the thought of Cinderella. I just needed to do a little re-defining of what it really means to be a princess, that’s all.

Welcome

Welcome to my blog. Thanks for stopping by. I've decided this is going to be a good stage, an open mic, a blank slate. For a girl who writes for a living, I struggle to find time to write for sheer pleasure. There was a time when I would etch away my thoughts almost as quickly as they came...but that was many moons ago, long before blogs were on the scene.

Mark Twain said, "Words are only painted fire; a look is the fire itself." I can see the truth in that. But I'm convinced that when words are written from the heart, it's very possible to feel the heat from the fire itself. I pray God will first of all, grow the fire that burns in my heart for him. And I pray his Spirit will empower me to emblazon his glory all over this little blog.

My cry is like that of Jeremiah's: But if I say, "I will not mention him or speak any more in his name," his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot (Jeremiah 20:9).