When life is easy, we gain little. But when times are tough, how we deal with them, holds the potential for great gains. Our character, and the character of those with whom we interact, is revealed in the same way.
It’s easy to be kind, compassionate, and patient with others when things in our life are going well. We feel less pressure, less stress, less irritation. So not much is revealed to us about our own character then. We might see glimpses, but rarely big pictures.
But if we’re having a hard time and we’re tested, then our reaction reveals our character. And then we do get far bigger picture insights than we do otherwise.
A while back, I saw a video captured by a Ring recorder on social media. In it, a man was delivering a package to a house. He noticed that the flagpole was down, and the American flag was on the ground. He set the package aside, tried to straighten the flagpole but it wouldn’t stay up. So, he removed the American flag and folded it properly, then set it on the front porch, saluted it, and then went on about his day.
A great deal about that man’s character is revealed in his actions. In what he did when no one was watching. He respected his flag, his country. He saluted it. He knew how to fold a flag properly. And he paused, though on a tight schedule, to do so. He didn’t make an ordeal of anything. He just did what we knew to be the right thing to do.
That is admirable. That is honorable. It is worth emulating—on matters like that and on all other matters.
We know right from wrong, good from bad, and what we should do versus what we want to do. Sometimes, we wish we didn’t, because doing the wrong, bad or what we want would be easier, cause less conflict, be more acceptable to others. But none of those things make wrong right, bad good, or make what we know we should do lose power over what we want to do.
So we should pause and take a lesson from the man who paused to honor the flag and respect what he’s been taught. We should recall that our character is revealed to us in what we do when no one is looking.
Yes, sometimes that carries costs, and yet doesn’t our willingness to pay them also reveal our character to us and to others involved? It does.
This brings to mind something I was told as a child: Nothing stays hidden. God sees and knows everything we think, say, or do. Or that we don’t.
Character is revealed in not acting or speaking when we know we should. To defend someone weaker, smaller, or younger. When we’re able to help someone in trouble, and choose not to do it.
My point is that what we do reveals our character, but what we don’t do does also.
Maybe we could benefit from remembering that. I’m not so much thinking of what our actions or inactions reveal to others about our character, though that can be important. I’m thinking of what acting or not acting reveals to us about who we are. That is, in my humble opinion, always important. Because we, and we alone, are accountable for what we do and what we leave undone.
May your choices comfort you.
Blessings,
Vicki
PS. Sharing a Faith Zone Mini from my blog I wrote many years ago that might be of interest. I kept a cutout of it on my mirror for the longest time. 😊
After the Jews returned to Jerusalem from exile in Babylon and rebuilt the temple and the city wall under Ezra and Nehemiah, there is a gap in the biblical record of about four centuries. During this time, the Jews struggled to survive as a small, weak remnant in a hostile environment. They were trapped between two dueling successor states to Alexander the Great’s Greek Empire—the Seleucids based in Syria and the Ptolemies in Egypt. These were thoroughly “Hellenistic” empires; that is, they were not Greek by nationality but had largely adopted Greek culture. The prophet Daniel had prophesied about some of the wars that would take place (particularly in Daniel 11). Among the Seleucid kings would be one who would “exalt and magnify himself above every god” (Daniel 11:36). His armies would “desecrate the temple fortress…abolish the daily sacrifice [and] set up the abomination that causes desolation” (Daniel 11:31). While some scholars interpret this to be referring to an end-times antichrist, the usual interpretation is that this refers to Antiochus IV, who gave himself the title “Epiphanes” (“God manifest”). About 169 BC, Antiochus entered the Holy of Holies and looted the temple. Two years later, he set up an altar to the supreme Greek god Jupiter in the temple. This resulted in a rebellion of the Jews led by a family called “the Maccabees.” Their history is recounted in the extra-biblical books 1 and 2 Maccabees and the writings of the Jewish historian Josephus.
Like many Christians, I had very little knowledge about this “intertestamental period” (the time between the Old Testament and the New Testament). But I had become curious. So, when I came across a copy of a book called The Wars of the Maccabees by John D. Grainger at a charity garage sale (to help fund a Christian missionary effort), I snatched it up.
Grainger says at the beginning of his book that he will look at the wars (which were even more complex than suggested in Daniel’s prophecy) in purely secular terms. That is, he assumes the wars were simply struggles for power and not religious conflicts. He consistently describes the Maccabees as terrorists and imperialists (that is, as wanting to develop their own empire independent of other empires). Strangely, he never applies these terms to the empires (especially the Seleucids) that sought to subjugate the Jews—those empires are portrayed as legitimate governments. Grainger dismisses the Jews’ attempts to gain freedom and independence, saying that what the Jews really wanted was freedom to dominate their neighbors.
Grainger draws two interesting conclusions that may have relevance for our day. First, he says that the Jews were not unified but were roughly broken into three camps. There were devout Jews who mostly followed the Maccabees; there were Hellenistic Jews who enthusiastically accepted Greek culture and values and wanted to think and act and believe like Greeks; and in between there were Jews who were preoccupied with their own lives and didn’t care one way or the other. Therefore, Grainger argues that it was not Antiochus who set up the Jupiter idol in the temple, but Hellenistic Jews. This might be true, but the Seleucids also insisted on the right to appoint and replace the Jewish high priest (sometimes for money and sometimes for political advantage), so if it was the Hellenistic Jews who erected the Jupiter idol, they were empowered to do so by the Seleucids.
Second, Grainger asserts that it was the Maccabees who were intolerant rather than the Seleucids and Hellenists. Greeks, he argues, tolerated all religions at the same time; they were quite willing to let Jews worship their own God as long as they also worshiped the Greek gods. The Maccabees, however, insisted on worshiping only their own God, Yahweh.
It seems to me that Christians are facing the same issue in our day. The Christian church is not threatened so much by the world as by “Christians” who accept the world’s standards and want to change the church to be more in tune with the world around them. The Old Testament prophet Daniel commented on this problem, saying, “With flattery [the one who would exalt himself above every god] will corrupt those who have violated the covenant, but the people who know their God will firmly resist him” (Daniel 11:32 NIV). Daniel insisted that believers in the true God need to resist the efforts by enemy forces (and “unfaithful believers”) to make them conform to the world.
Modern Western society also strongly believes in tolerance. In fact, it insists that Christians must accept and affirm other religions and sinful lifestyles. What modern Western society will not tolerate is Christians who insist on worshiping only the true God. Jesus said that we cannot serve two masters (Matthew 6:24). Paul asked, “What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols?” (2 Corinthians 6:16). But Hellenistic thinking pervades modern Western society. Modern secularists/Greek thinkers are trying today to force others to follow their religion of “tolerance.” Erecting your idol in someone else’s temple is not tolerance. Trying to force Christians to give equal weight to other religions and accept sinful lifestyles is not tolerance.
War and More War
The wars of the Maccabees continued for more than a century. The Maccabees won some battles. They lost some battles. The Judean kingdom expanded and contracted, expanded and contracted. The Maccabees fought with and against various factions in the Seleucid and Ptolemaic kingdoms when those kingdoms were divided by civil wars. In the last century before Christ, they fought against the newly arisen Nabatean kingdom based in Petra in the desert lands to the east.
However, increasingly, the Maccabeans became what Grainger accuses them of being from the beginning. While the initial revolt was motivated by a desire to protect the temple and Jewish religion from corruption, later stages of the revolt became increasingly political and secular. The Maccabean leaders increasingly acted like the rulers of the kingdoms around them, seeking to extend their own power rather than build the kingdom of God. They hired foreign mercenaries to augment the Jewish armies. Competing claimants to the Maccabean throne fought civil wars against each other, with the Pharisees and Sadducees sometimes backing different claimants. The divisions in the kingdom eventually led to intervention by the Roman Empire as it expanded into the Middle East. A man named Antipater, “a man of great wealth and political acumen,” intervened in the Jewish civil wars. He was from Idumea, formerly Edom, the kingdom of the descendants of Esau, located to the south of Judah. The Romans later helped one of Antipater’s sons, Herod, conquer the Judean kingdom, and Herod was appointed king of Judah by the Romans.
The failure of the Maccabees to maintain political control of Judea was partly due to the strength of Judah’s external enemies. But it was also due to the inherent divisions within Jewish society. Hellenists, Pharisees, Sadducees, and power-hungry politicians all competed for power and weakened the state they were trying to establish. Like Old Testament Israel and her kings, they were not wholly committed to God and therefore lacked the power and divine blessing needed to succeed. Ultimately, they illustrated the inability of humans to build the kingdom of God by force. Only God can build His kingdom.
Christians preach only one God but should never try to force other people to worship Him (as it must be admitted they have done at certain times in history), any more than modern secularists should try to force Christians to worship their god of “tolerance.” Forced worship is never genuine, and using force in the name of religion is counter-productive.
The Conclusion
Grainger dismisses the Maccabees as terrorists who were doomed to fail because of the inherent conflict between the political and religious aims of the Jewish kingdom. He notes that the Jews continued to rebel against Rome—in 66-73 AD when Jerusalem was destroyed, in 115-117, and in 132-135. Grainger concludes, “The only way to control Judea was to destroy the Jewish community. This is the final lesson of the career of Judah Maccabee, whose methods were used eventually by the Romans against his people to destroy them.” Grainger here displays his anti-religious and ant-Jewish bias. He justifies the annihilation of the Jewish kingdom and the extermination of Jewish religion on the grounds that that religion is incompatible with Hellenistic thought. His ideal is for secular kingdoms to rule, untroubled by religious sensibilities. He never questions why the Seleucids or the Romans should claim the right to rule the Jews and their land. It is deeply concerning that he thinks the Jews deserved to be exterminated because they refused to surrender their political and religious independence.
Grainger’s analysis is thus flawed, but his volume helps to elucidate the political and religious situation in Judea when Jesus came to teach and preach and establish His kingdom.
It’s been said that the one thing we can count on in life is change. Things seem to change almost as quickly as a blink of an eye. Whether it’s the seasons, our jobs, where we live, or our health, most things do change. But there is one thing that remains the same. God never changes.
The same God who spoke the universe into existence is still able to speak calm over your storm. I love that!
Psalm 102:25-27 says, Of old you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you will remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away, but you are the same, and your years have no end.
The One who parted the red sea can clear a path for your dreams. All we have to do is dream big and pray. And then let Him direct or steps.
Exodus 14:21 says . . .All that night the LORD drove back the sea with a strong east wind that turned it into dry land.
And the same Jesus who stepped into human history, defeated Satan and death, and who bridged the gap between our sinful selves and God, can heal not only our hearts but our lives–no matter how messy they might be.
And one day, that same Jesus is coming back.
Revelation 1:7 says, Look, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and all peoples on earth will mourn because of him. So shall it be! Amen.
Until Jesus does return, rest in the assurance that the Creator of the universe never grows weary. He is in control, no matter how uncertain the things in this world may appear.
Isaiah 40:28 Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.
God is unchanging and His word is firmly in place.
Forever, O Lord, your word is firmly fixed in the heavens.
There’s so much going on in the world today, not just in our everyday life, but in the bigger picture. It can be a time when we feel helpless or overwhelmed. How do we deal with the cares of the world? Through prayer.
In Matthew Chapter 6, the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray. Jesus replied,
“This, then, is how you should pray:
“‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’
We know this prayer is a model of how we should approach our Father in heaven. But Jesus didn’t stop there. He continues in Matthew Chapter 6,
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
I often have to ask myself, why do I let things bother me, especially when I have no control over them? I can’t solve world events. I can’t tell the government how to be run in a Godly fashion. I can’t stop my family members from becoming ill. But the one thing I can do is get on my knees and talk to Jesus.
Jesus makes it clear that he expects us to come to Him. He wants us to lay our burdens at His feet. In John Chapter 14, Jesus says,
And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
From the smallest concern to the heaviest load we carry in our heart, Jesus is there for us. My hope for today is that we remember how much Jesus loves us. That no matter what is going on in our lives, we can talk to Him. I know that when I take the time to pour out my heart in prayer, I feel so much lighter and experience a sense of peace. Then the world doesn’t seem so hopeless and dark, and I remember that God is our good God.
Tara Randel is an award-winning, USA Today bestselling author. Family values, a bit of mystery and of course, love and romance, are her favorite themes, because she believes love is the greatest gift of all. For more information about her books, visit Tara at www.tararandel.com.Like her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/TaraRandelBooks. Sign up for Tara’s Newsletter.
What I didn’t expect was for God to take me back to childhood. He pointed out places where I carried pain. Through the book, prayer, and sharing with a dear friend, I was able to face those things from far and recent past and find healing.
One fact jumped out at me.
Christ, a living hope.
It’s so simple I nearly missed it.
Christ. Well, right there that packs quite a punch. He’s more than a teacher as many religions box him into. He’s Messiah. Savior. King of Kings. Lord of Lords. Yet even in His royalty He is always accessible. His arms are open.
Living. When I see a crucified Jesus on a cross I think of His sacrifice. That kind of execution was for the worst of the worst. Yet there He hung, nailed, beaten, spit on, mocked, whipped, and finally dead. But wait! There’s more. On the third day, the stone was moved. Grave clothes were neatly folded.
Jesus is alive. He is living. Preach all day to me about other religions but is your god the One who fulfilled prophesy after prophesy? Does your god hold up 2,000 years later? Is your god alive? Because my Jesus checks all those boxes.
Hope. Jesus doesn’t just offer hope, HE IS HOPE. C’mon. That’s amazing. Whether it’s childhood trauma, pandemic fallout, financial woes, relationship problems, job loss, medical diagnosis, throw anything and everything going on in your life right now and leave it at His feet.
Jesus is your living Messiah who is hope.
He’s got this.
It’s on His shoulders. It should not be on yours.
He’s already resting at that place, whatever and wherever it is, while He stands behind you, and stands with you.
Do I know your issues? I do not. But if you have not considered Jesus, today is a great day to start.
If it’s become a bit lukewarm, turn that burner up. Jesus knows fire. He’ll see you through.
If you’re in a good place with your relationship with Jesus, trust Him for a better place.
No matter where you are, keep thinking on the truth.
Commentators have been troubled by this New Testament statement about Moses: “By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger” (Hebrews 11:27). The original Old Testament story says that when it became known that Moses had killed an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew slave, “Moses was afraid and…fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian” (Exodus 2:14-15). It is possible that the punctuation in Hebrews 11:27 could be changed so that the verse reads, “By faith he left Egypt; not fearing the king’s anger, he persevered because he saw him who is invisible,” although most translators and commentators think that is unlikely.
It is helpful to remember that the story in Hebrews is greatly condensed. It is therefore quite possible that this verse refers to Moses’ second departure from Egypt, when he led the Hebrew slaves to freedom. This was when Moses repeatedly stared down Pharaoh’s anger (Exodus 5-12). This was when he persevered. And this was after he had encountered the invisible God at the burning bush (Exodus 3-4). The point of the story is the contrast between two competing rulers. Everyone could see Pharaoh’s army, wealth, and power. But only those who have faith, only those who have “seen” the invisible God, know that He is far more powerful than Pharaoh or any other earthly ruler. Only those with faith can dare to defy earthly kings and governments and serve the only true King.
A few weeks ago I attended the Faith, Hope, and Love Christian Writers Conference. The was FHLCW’s first in-person conference. As President of FHLCW, I couldn’t wait to be there and see what blessings the Lord would give everyone.
The conference was small, just under seventy-five people. But, the sense of community was strong. Through the teachings, the meals, and throughout the weekend, it was so fun to watch these writers make connections and renew friendships. Hearing the group sing the worship songs on Sunday morning was very special. It was like being there with family, and I can’t wait for next year’s conference.
Meeting with like-minded people got me thinking about our need to gather together and draw encouragement from one another. In Hebrews 10:24-25 we read, “And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another…”
These verses are usually taken to mean we should be in church regularly meeting with other Christians and being lifted up in our faith. I wonder if it can also mean getting together with family, friends, or a work group. Of course, to be lifted up in our faith, we need to regularly meet with other Christians and be careful when we meet with those who don’t share out faith.
It is so very easy to fall into a rut of work, home, family, daily chores and ignore our need for like-minded people. The deficit in emotional and spiritual nourishment may not have an impact at first, but it will build up. We must work to assemble together—to try to make time for people who will lift us up just by their presence and their godly attitude.
While it’s sometimes awkward or uncomfortable to sacrifice time and meet with others, it is worth the cost. For me, putting in the work to attend that FHLCW conference meant seeing writer friends I hadn’t seen for a long time. It meant meeting writers I’d only known online, putting faces to names, and realizing how wonderful these people are. It meant being heartened in a professional capacity when the very nature of writing is a lonely one.
So I encourage you to consider your need to assemble with those in your family, your church, your Bible study, or even from work. Be lifted up by their friendship and in turn, you can lift them up too.
After living in the same house for 29 years, my wife and I decided it was time to move. The children had grown up and moved out. The big yard with its fruit trees and gardens was becoming too much work. And we felt as if we were in a rut. It was time for a new challenge.
So, we downsized—from a 1600-square-foot house to a 2200-square-foot townhouse. Our new place is in a slightly smaller city 20 miles away. It is the largest, newest, most functional place we have ever lived in. We feel blessed.
The move also meant that we moved from a neighborhood to a community. We are now part of a “strata” or “homeowners’ association,” which means that we have to work together with our neighbors, the other members of the townhouse complex.
A year after we moved here, I was asked to consider joining the strata council, the elected body that runs the complex. God has a sense of humor. One of the reasons we moved was so that I would no longer have to take care of our big yard. I am now in charge of landscaping for the whole complex.
Since that first year on council, I have been re-elected twice. It is not a great honor. No one else wants the job.
Being on strata council means doing hours of unpaid work every month, often at inconvenient times. It causes a lot of stress as we deal with complex issues, complaints and criticisms, unreasonable demands, violations of the rules necessary for community living, and the weight of responsibility.
So, why do it?
For me, the answer has a history.
Several years ago, I began studying the Old Testament book of Daniel. Daniel and other Jews wer
e suddenly uprooted from their place among the people of God and taken into exile, where they were immersed in the pagan culture of the Babylonian Empire. I realized that there were lessons that could be gleaned from Daniel’s experience, lessons of crucial importance for North American Christians as we are now immersed in a pagan culture of our own. This study eventually led to the book, Living for God in a Pagan Society: What Daniel Can Teach Us (Mill Lake Books).
In the course of that study, I came across a letter written by the prophet Jeremiah in Jerusalem to Daniel and the other exiles in Babylon, telling them how to live in that pagan society. That letter seemed so important that I included a chapter on it in my book about Daniel. Among other things, Jeremiah’s letter said, “Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper” (Jeremiah 29:7 NIV).
Having written about this letter, I must now practice what I preached. And so, I seek the peace and prosperity of our new city by serving on the strata council.
On Saturday, parts of our country got to experience God’s majesty reflected in a partial solar eclipse that is known as the ring of fire. A ring of fire eclipse, also known as an annular eclipse, occurs when the Moon passes between the Sun and Earth, but does not completely cover the Sun’s disk. As a result, a bright ring or “annulus” of sunlight remains visible around the Moon’s silhouette. I’m reminded of Revelation 8:12: And a fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise.
Although I know what happened on Saturday wasn’t like that at all, the eclipse started when the shadows outside seemed to deepen, and it wasn’t nearly as bright outside. I can’t imagine what the outdoors would look like if a third of the stars, the moon and the sun, were no longer there!
When we went out to observe there were dozens of little crescent beams of light all around the ground.
Although we never really could visually see the ring of fire as pictured here, those little beams of light on the ground were mysterious and another reflection of God’s majesty.
I hope you, too, were able to enjoy the ring of fire eclipse!
Psalm 19: 1 says, The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.
A few years ago I listened to a series by Elevation Church lead pastor, Steven Furtick. It was called “Hippy Jesus” and he walked everyone through the myths out there concerning Jesus, and the truth.
Many see Jesus as a surfer dude type with the long, flowing hair and smile. He’s got hugs and handshakes.
What most miss is Jesus came from the Middle East. He will not have lily white skin as so many pictures depict.
He also gets angry. He flipped a table. When He returns, I just finished a line by line teaching of Revelation. He will not be dainty Jesus. He is King of Kings and Lord or Lords. He will be taking care of business.
This week He also showed me He got dirty.
I’ve been praying through something that has been full of ups and many downs. It’s heartbreaking and hard, hard warfare. One outcome was desirable for those of us that have been praying. Not easy, but certainly nicer of all the options out there.
Right now, that option isn’t happening and most likely won’t. At least not the way I pictured it.
Jesus reminded me He walked dirty, dusty roads and ministered with those who were just as dirty on the inside as the out. His feet needed cleaning and His robe was a mess. But it never stopped Him from entering those dirty situations. It also never changed Him. His clothes may have been a mess, but He was not. He didn’t fall into any spiritual pit.
A dirty robe is enough to imagine, but remember His last hours before death. The loincloth was bloody. Forty lashes was fatal. Jesus received 39. The whips used had glass and stone embedded. He was beat on. Then nailed to a cross. It’s an easy sentence to read, but picture it. He was nailed to a cross.
Dirty, bloody Jesus.
All for us.
Sometimes Jesus allows us to get dirtied and bloodied in a sense because the “cleaner” option would not have brought us to desperation where Jesus is our only need. As I pray for the situation above, I sense it’s going to take a path where it’s going to get messy.
But not impossible.
Or over.
In that pit there is a hand just waiting for the call, and won’t Jesus offer that nail-scarred hand immediately to lift that Child of God out of the pit. That visual encouraged me. Do I want people I care about to suffer? No.
But sometimes that’s what it takes.
Jesus knows.
He lived the dirt, blood, and mess first.
Sometimes testimonies need to be mess-tamonies. Testimonies with a lot of junk Jesus took care of in His time.
I end this week tired, a little sad, but encouraged.
The photo above is the safe room and bomb shelter at Kalia Kibbutz with its date plantation and gardens bordering the Dead Sea next to Qumran where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found.
One of the most meaningful lessons I’ve learned in Israel is about safe rooms and bomb shelters since they constantly face threats of wars and attacks. So many rockets have been fired into Israel from Gaza, Syria, or Lebanon that Israeli law requires all new building structures to include reinforced security “safe rooms,” somewhere to go to remain to outlast attacks and survive. Their name in Hebrew is “Merkhav Mugan,” literally “protected space.” I know many people who’ve used them but thankfully no one injured in such attacks.
Residential safe rooms are comfortable for short-term stays in the event rockets are launched without enough warning for people to reach public bomb shelters. Their use might be like the adage, “If you carry an umbrella, it won’t rain.”
I learned on an early viair to Israel to stay aware of the distance our daytime travel or nighttime sleeping locations were at any given time from target areas. On that trip my team and I landed in Israel two hours after the 2012 Gaza War broke out. I got up early to join our hostess hearing radio news to see where bombing and combat areas were expected for the day. We heard the broadcaster say something like, “If you are four miles from today’s target area and hear the siren, you have sixty seconds to get to your safe room. If you are two miles away, you have thirty seconds. One mile—15 seconds. If you are closer than that, just STAY in your safe room.”
We stayed alert and aware of how long it would take us to get to safety at any given moment.
And then the Lord impressed me that He is our safe room and instead of me dashing in and out, invited me to abide in the shelter of His care.
Psalm 91: 1 “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. 2 I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.”
This shows missile defense from Israel’s Iron Dome shooting down incoming rockets fired from Gaza in 2012.
Hebrews 11 is the great chapter of faith. There we learn how Abraham and Moses and others lived faithful lives. But the Bible was not originally divided into chapters and verses. What was said in Hebrews 11 is closely connected to what was said in Hebrews 10 and what was said in Hebrews 12. Indeed Hebrews 10 and 12 spell out the lessons to be learned from the faith examples in Hebrews 11. The primary lesson is that the Christian life is hard and challenging. If we have the idea that the Christian life is going to be easy, then we will not be prepared for the challenges that come our way and will fail to remain faithful.
Here are specific ways in which we need to remain faithful:
• “Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings” (10:22).
• “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess” (10:23).
• “Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another” (10:25).
• “Remember those earlier days…when you endured” suffering, insult, persecution, and confiscation of property and “stood side by side with those who were so treated” and those in prison (10:32-34). That is, let us remember our past faithfulness and keep doing the same things.
• “Do not throw away your confidence” (10:35).
• “Persevere” and do not “shrink back” (10:36-39).
• “Throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles” (12:1).
• “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us” (12:1).
• Let us fix “our eyes on Jesus” (12:2).
• “Consider” Jesus, who also remained faithful in suffering “so that you will not grow weary and lose heart” (12:3).
• “Struggle against sin…to the point of shedding your blood” (12:4).
• “Do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you” (12:5).
• “Endure hardship as discipline” (12:7).
• “Strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. ‘Make level paths for your feet,’ so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed” (12:12-13). Like 10:25 and 10:32-34, this assumes that we do not live the Christian life in isolation but that we do it together, supporting one another.
• “Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy” (12:14).
• “See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God” (12:15).
• See to it “that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many” (12:15).
• “See to it that no one is sexually immoral” (12:16).
• See to it that no one “is godless like Esau,” who traded his godly inheritance for something far less valuable and far more temporary (12:16).
There is a lot of repetition here, but that shows how hard it is to remain faithful and also how important it is. These chapters contain warnings that the alternative to remaining faithful is “a fearful expectation of judgment” (10:27) and destruction (10:39). There is a day of judgment coming (10:25). When that day comes, if we have not remained faithful, it will be too late to repent, too late to shed tears, too late to change what we have done. (12:17).
I live in the Deep South and love gardening. The first thing I planted when I moved into my Mississippi cottage was wisteria—a showy flowering vine that is almost a symbol of Southern living. It grows wild in the woods all over the state, which should have been a warning sign to me. The gorgeous purple flowers hang in clusters from the trees and perfume the area with a sweet fragrance that is intoxicating in the spring. When it blooms, there is an explosion of color in the garden. Planted beside a yellow climbing Lady Banks rose (in the foreground of the first photo), the wisteria creates a spectacle that caused people to stop their cars in front of my house to look and snap pictures.
But wisteria is a fast-growing, climbing vine. I thought I could keep it trimmed back, but it grew too fast for me. I could travel for two weeks, and come home to find the wisteria had climbed high into the trees beyond my reach. Impossible for me to cut back without risk of falling off a ladder and breaking my neck.
Unlike the clematis, it does not grow on a tiny wisp of stem that never overwhelms other plants or structures. If left in the garden for years, the trunk will grow big and heavy. Slowly it begins to strangle and weigh down the trees and fences it has attached itself to. Eventually, smaller trees will break under the weight of the vine, fences will collapse, and large trees will not get enough sunlight so their own leaves can grow.
For all its beauty, the wisteria is also poisonous. Both the flowers and the seed pods contain toxins that will cause great distress if they are ingested.
When my prized Golden rain tree collapsed (the entire tree!) under the weight of wisteria after a heavy rain, I should have taken steps to remove it. But, no. I was obsessed with its beauty. I could hardly wait till spring when it would put on a spectacular show. I told myself the Golden rain tree had created too much shade in the garden, and now I could plant sun-loving flowers in its place.
Next, the wisteria managed to swing from the magnolia tree in my enclosed Angel Garden to the pecan tree across the fence. My lawn-care guy told me he was going to arrive at my cottage to cut my grass and have to hack through the wisteria with a machete to get me out of the house. Still, I love purple! I love bloom! I love fragrance!
I couldn’t bring myself to get rid of the wisteria. Do I hear you gardeners laughing? You should be. Getting rid of wisteria is like launching a battle against an enemy who is bigger, stronger, and smarter than you. Did I mention the vine is also tenacious.? Cut it down and it will grow back in a heartbeat. Pay an arborist to cut it down then grind the stump, and there will be one small root way under the ground just waiting its chance to sprout when you’re not watching, and start growing like wildfire.
My wisteria is mostly gone now, but it’s still launching sneak attacks and I’m still fighting back. It occurred to me that the story of my battle with wisteria is a perfect symbol for letting enjoyment of a good thing get out of hand, go too far, become an obsession that does damage. Chocolate, anyone? If one Hershey’s bar is good, then a six pack is divine. Right? Forget health and doctor’s warnings about diabetes. You want me to serve on one more committee? It’s for a good cause, right? Forget that I already serve on seven committees in my church and community, and I have a family who is crying out for attention.
Good things can be sneaky. They can become an obsession. I’m trying to learn to recognize when a good thing becomes too much.
When setting out to write a book, there are many aspects that need to be considered. What is the story about? Who are the characters? The plot? The theme? All the components that, as an author, we sit down and consider before we even begin to type the first page in our story.
Since there are genres in fiction, the answers to these questions depend on if you are writing a romance, or a mystery or even a comedy. Or a combination of those topics. I’ve written in a few different genres, but today I want to focus on romance.
As in any genre, there are degrees to which you can tell your story. In romance, the swing is from inspirational or Christian to very steamy content. I write for the Harlequin Heartwarming line, which are wholesome romance novels. In the wholesome line, I get to focus on and spend time in the emotions of my characters. When I decided to make writing my career, I knew it would be romance and telling stories about love. And while I may not write in the Christian realm, I still focus on topics that are Christian centered. Forgiveness. Second chances. Hope. Most of all, love. The things that enhance our lives.
As I was coming up with a new proposal for my publisher, I knew I wanted the books to be about four sisters who were estranged. From book to book, they would reconnect with each other while also searching for ways to heal the trauma that had separated them. At the heart of each story, my female protagonists would have to forgive a very important person in all their lives. Could they do it? Did they want to do it? Sometimes, it is easier said than done.
But for those of us who follow Christ, we strive to be better. If that means forgiving someone who has hurt us, then we must try.
And since writing a book is never as easy as it might seem, I have to stay true to the format and include a love story that will also make my characters stretch and grow. Put them in a different place than when I first started the book.
I could have taken a different topic, like hope, and based my theme on it, but for some reason, forgiveness took center stage, and I went with it. I was able to flesh out my characters knowing this was their goal as I worked forgiveness into the plot. Sure, my characters would have to do a lot of soul searching, but isn’t that why we love to read books that tackle tough subjects? Life isn’t always easy, so I couldn’t make the conflict in my character’s lives that simple to solve.
This is why I love to write big stories. To dig in and figure out why people behave the way they do, how they can rise above the challenges to become better people, not only for themselves, but most importantly, for others. And the reward? Love. The one thing we all want in our lives.
So now I’m waiting to hear if the editors will accept my proposal. Patience, another virtue that is tough to master, is key, but in the waiting, we discover a lot about ourselves and our relationship with God. I give everything that I write to the Lord, hoping for His guidance when I address difficult topics. I want His wisdom not only in my daily life, but in the pages that I write. To me, that’s what being an author is all about.
Tara Randel is an award-winning, USA Today bestselling author. Family values, a bit of mystery and of course, love and romance, are her favorite themes, because she believes love is the greatest gift of all. For more information about her books, visit Tara at www.tararandel.com.Like her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/TaraRandelBooks. Sign up for Tara’s Newsletter.
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