SIEGE (Jeremiah 39)

In the ninth year and tenth month of Zedekiah king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came with his entire army and laid siege to Jerusalem. In the eleventh year and fourth month, on the ninth day of Zedekiah’s reign, they broke , MSG)through into the city. (Jeremiah 39:1-2, MSG)

October 2009 to April 2011--easier for me to calculate than "10th month of the 9th year and the 4th month of the 11th year."

The Babylonians laid siege to Jerusalem for 18 months.

Eighteen months.

The famous siege of Masada in the first century, where all the residents killed themselves rather than be captured, only lasted a few months. Two pregnancies. No new supplies for a year and a half. This was a city, after all. House gardens wouldn't provide the grains and produce without the surrounding countryside.

No grain or livestock for the daily sacrifice.

Surviving eighteen months of dwindling resources and the threat of annihilation would ordinarily rouse admiration for their courage. We would admire the king who look to their leaders for our heroes.

Instead, Jeremiah told them to go to the Babylonians and end the siege. And Zedekiah is remembered as the last king of Judah.

Are you facing any long-term problems? Where would you like to be in eighteen months? Do you do the right thing by fighting towards that goal, using all of your resources and then some more?

Or is God calling you to give up that battle and to move on to the next stage of your life?

Is the future God wants for you something other than that seems obvious to you?

It's worth thinking about.

TAKE YOUR TIME (Isaiah 26)

We're in no hurry, God. We're content to linger in the path sign-posted with your decisions. Who you are and what you've done are all we'll ever want. (Isaiah 26:8, MSG)

Do you ever want God to hurry up? I know I do. You know, the kind of prayer that says, teach me patience, and I want it NOW.

I get impatient when I can see the road I'm on deadending in front of me and have no idea what direction God will send me in next. I especially get that way when the deadline for my final book contract approaches and I don't have another one--or even the hint of another one. But it works the same whenever I have to move or find a job or decide about a trip.

Living in a nursing home, I know that right now this is God's plan for me. When I wonder if I'll be here, in this same place, until I die? I try to avoid thinking about that possibility, but I kind of wish I had a hint about "what next."

Oh, to have the attitude Isaiah mentions in today's verse. To be content to live for today. To linger in this place and time where I know God has placed me. To accept the stoplight without wondering if or when it will turn green again.

How do I change from worrying about the future to living content, today? Change my focus. Today and tomorrow, praising God for who He is and thanking Him for what He does will keep my heart in the right place. When I remember how God has proven faithful in the past, I am reassured for the future. When I ponder His character, what makes Him act t he way He does, I know He will always do what is best for me.

I don't know what the future holds--but I know Who holds the future.

So way hurry? Linger on the path with God.

(P.S. There's a great song, I Know Who Holds Tomorrow by Ira Stanphill, but I can't due to copyright. If you want to, look it up. :) )

OUT TO PASTURE? (Psalm 71)

Just as each day brims with your beauty, my mouth brims with praise.
But don't turn me out to pasture when I'm old or put me on the shelf when I can't pull my weight. (Psalm 71:8-9, MSG)

You, who made me stare trouble in the face, turn me around;
Now let me look life in the face.
I've been to the bottom;
Bring me up, streaming with honors; turn to me, be tender to me.
And I'll take up the lute and thank you to the tune of your faithfulness, God. (Psalm 71:17-24, MSG)

I had a best friend named Jonathan when we were in second grade. We remained good friends until I seventeen years later. But Jon is responsible for a sad-but-funny childhood memory. We were playing farm and ranch or something like that with another girl. They sent me "out to pasture" while they went on to play somewhere else.

Hmm. That's the way I was feeling on Saturday--put out to pasture while God was playing with someone else, someone younger, with more time and freedom to travel than I do.

Yesterday I reached a point where I felt hopeful that I would again feel hopeful and find purpose. I still don't know what that purpose will be--but God will show me and until then, I live the day He has mapped out for me: I have four more books to write. And I hope to complete two years at least of this blog, taking us all the way through the New Testament.
Today I received a birthday card that sent exactly the message I needed to hear: You hold a special place in God's heart and a special purpose in this world. . .and that makes you irreplaceable.

Saturday, I stared the trouble ahead of me in the face. I am aging. I haven't left the nursing home for anything except my trip to the hospital in over a year. I may have topped out as far as how wide a path I will cut in the writing world. (Yes, I will write more books, but I doubt that I will become a bestseller or win a Pulitzer prize.) My glass was more than empty.

Today I echo David's prayer: Let me look life in the face. And it IS life. Every pain-filled, joy-filled, GOD-filled minute of it. Any honors that come to me, may I offer them as thanksgiving and praise to the Lord. Today, my glass is half full and the liquid level is rising.

How do you look life in the face?

TODAY'S FAVORITE VERSE: Especially for writers. I'll write the book on your righteousness, talk up your salvation in the livelong day, never run out of good things to write or say. (Psalm 71:15, MSG)