All bodies are beautiful.

All bodies are beautiful. Period. Let’s repeat this to ourselves everyday, and remember this means YOURS too.

It’s been a busy week or so here as I prepare for Holy Week (a busy time in church work!) so my blog has taken the back seat for a little while. But here is another little image I put together, that is also available on my Society6 store.

Meanwhile, this is a lot of what I’ve been up to:

This has been such a fun project, and our church has such willing volunteers for this type of activity! I feel very blessed, and I hope the kids who participate do as well!

If you are in a children’s ministry role and ever want to connect, feel free to contact me!

happy spring!

happy spring from me to you! this is a little portrait of my amazing and beautiful cousin Suzanne. Feel free to contact me for commissions!

you matter

Find my new “Encouraging Words” collection in my Society6 shop!

I love walking in cemeteries.*

There are the days when you need to shut off the noise, and nothing does that like a walk in a cemetery. There is a reason for the expression “silent as the grave.”

Today in particular I need silence, so I leave my phone at home and walk to the nearby cemetery. 

The first thing I notice is the sound of my footsteps. (If I had my phone, I wouldn’t have even noticed them.) The sound is a reminder that I am alive. And I will be alive until the moment I take my last breath. This sounds obvious, but sometimes I need this reminder. Amidst the anxiety of life and the treading water of purpose, I need to remember that whatever my surroundings, I am still alive. And because I am still alive, I am still called by God to live.

I glance at the names on each stone. I say the names in my head and hope in some small way this keeps their memory alive and honors them. I take note of the dates. I even find my eyes moistening when my brief calculations prove a child is buried here. I grieve for them. Sometimes I even pray for their souls, which I am not sure is theologically correct, but I still think it’s OK to do. 

I like to think that even though I love the silence of a cemetery, it’s OK to bring my children once in a while and let them play among the stones. I imagine that every person buried there would love to hear children laughing and running and using every second to just live their precious lives. Children are good at teaching us how to do that. And there is no more profound example for me than children running in a cemetery. 

Today I am thankful for my walk in the cemetery and the lessons I glean from it. I like to think the people buried there would be happy to know their bodily presence nestled in the ground can still play a part in instructing the living. 

*This was written earlier in the pandemic. Reading it now, months later, I realize it sounds pretty morbid. I don’t mean it to be. I think we always need to be reminded to move forward and live abundantly, even if we aren’t depressed (but let’s be honest - the pandemic has brought many of us to varying levels of depression!).

The Cost of Beauty

In part 1 in my series on Beauty, I talked about how beauty needs a broader definition. I related it to finding beauty in myself, but also that it can apply to so many things in this world. Today, in part 2, I examine the cost of looking for (and finding!) that beauty.

I saw a picture on Instagram (@earthfocus) which led me to a conversation with my husband that jokingly started like this “I want to go to there”. It wasn’t too too far off, and going there actually became a distinct possibility. But the catch was, I wanted to go when the Christmas lights were still up, because I wanted it to look just like the picture. So we planned a trip to Quebec City in early January. The resulting trip and subsequent pictures were some of the most magical in my entire life. Even my dearly-loved husband, very much a non-romantic, told me the streets were “almost magical”. (Did my husband just say something was magical?? But he did, and it was.)

Whether we are visiting a uniquely beautiful place, staring at a beautiful painting, looking into the peaceful face of a sleeping child, hiking through a colorful woods, or even experiencing a lovely smell, emotions buried deep can come to the surface in an instant. Some things are universally considered beautiful. Some things are only beautiful to us. But either way, it doesn’t change the force of our reaction when we face something we find truly beautiful: something raw and real wells up inside. It shakes us and awakens us. It can be so evocative that we can feel things we haven’t felt before or feel them more deeply and richly than ever. 

Sometimes our reaction can even feel painful. Sometimes tears come to our eyes and we want to cry. Our soul is crying out that this is what life is about, this is abundance, this is real and everything else is just a sad imitation. 

But the moment doesn’t last. 

My favorite quote by C.S. Lewis (in The Weight of Glory) sums it up so well:

“We do not want merely to see beauty, though, God knows, even that is bounty enough. We want something else which can hardly be put into words — to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it.”

Our beautiful moment of raw and real emotion is gone all too soon. We can’t put it in our back pocket and pull it out whenever we want a piece. It is happenstance and ephemeral. It is that very fleeting nature of a beautiful moment that makes it so precious, but also so painful. We want to hold on to it forever.

There was a moment in the Pixar movie Soul when #22 (in Joe’s body) sat down and watched a seed fall to the ground. It wasn’t a big, dramatic moment. It wasn’t profoundly beautiful in the classic definition of the word. In fact, it was rather ordinary: a seed fell from a tree onto a city sidewalk. Someone else could have sat in the exact same spot and caught the exact same seed and felt nothing. 

But to #22, it changed everything. It was just a moment, but it was the moment her soul came alive and she decided she wanted to really live.

My example of old Quebec City in January is a bit silly, but my point is that in order to catch that fleeting once-a-year beauty, we had to endure some of the coldest days we have every experienced. We had to hunt down something we knew to be beautiful, but the cost was frozen fingers and toes!

Sometimes the cost is just being cold. Sometimes it’s just taking a little time out of our day. Sometimes it’s that we look a little silly. But sometimes it’s allowing ourselves feel something real that may scare us, to allow ourselves to be changed, and to really live.

Beauty is all around us if we really take the time to look (especially if we remember to broaden its definition). Opening ourselves to its evocative nature may feel very vulnerable or make us feel exposed but it is the path of abundance. 

And that is beautiful.

Beauty Needs a Broader Definition

Part 1 of a short blog series on Beauty

We have a very narrow definition of beauty. 

Go ahead, take some time to think of things that are classically considered beautiful. 

I bet your list looks something like: 

Rainbows
Flowers
Sunsets
Colorful fall leaves
A mom and her baby
A handsome man or a beautiful woman

No doubt these are all beautiful things. But is there not also beauty in the rain before the rainbow? 

My quest to find beauty everywhere has been lifelong, even before I knew how to express it. But never has the journey been harder than when I realized I had to look for it in myself, especially my physical self, though I had to apply this to my personality as well. It took a force of will and deep conviction to stop hating my body, to stop cursing my personality, and to start loving it. 

And when I started loving who I am more, I realized that beauty for women is too narrowly defined. Isn’t it beautiful to have laugh lines? To have stretch marks? To have wrinkles? 

Laugh lines show a life full of smiles and laughter; stretch marks show a body that grew and changed in different seasons, whether from great joy or sorrow or just normal everyday life; wrinkles can tell story after story of a life well lived. For me, and in particular, my weight gain, showed a happiness and contentment I have never experienced before. And isn’t that what is beautiful?

And if beauty for women is too narrowly defined, then maybe all beauty is too narrowly defined.

Rain
Weeds
Clouds
Naked trees
Grief
Imperfect bodies of all kinds

Nature and its ever changing and yet always the same cycle is beautiful. Change, dying in winter and rebirth in spring represent to us newness and excitement with each day and season, while also reassuring us with its consistency.

The tears of a grieving son, mother, friend are beautiful. They show the depth of emotion, of love, that is so raw and real - emotions that we so easily take for granted in our every day lives. It is the pain of grief that we have all felt, the pain that connects us together.

Humanity as real people, not as sex symbols or icons to idolize, is beautiful. Real people who have lived real lives, who have touched others, and their bodies that reflect the journey. Humanity in every form, not just one color, race, and shape, is part of the richness of who we are as people!

That is the broader definition of beauty that we need. That is beauty. And it can be found everywhere.

What if all the boring parts matter to God?

“Yet God made us to spend our days in rest, work, and play, taking care of our bodies, our families, our neighborhoods, our homes. What if all these boring parts matter to God? What if days passed in ways that feel small and insignificant to us are weighty with meaning and part of the abundant life that God has for us?…

“I like big ideas. I can get drunk on talk of justification, ecclesiology, pneumatology, Christology, and eschatology. But these big ideas are borne out - lived believed, and enfleshed - in the small moments of our day, in the places, seasons, homes, and communities that compose our lives.”

-Tish Harrison Warren, Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life

I cannot recommend this book enough.

What's on the Book Pile? Moving Edition

We are in the process of a move and it’s made me realize something… we own a lot of books! Many of them have been read and loved and kept for that reason. But there are also many that have just been kept.

There is nothing I love more than a used bookstore with a huge “cozy mystery” section. I could browse there for hours! But usually I don’t have hours to make my selections, so I grab a few that look interesting and add them to my pile.

Hence the book pile, moving edition…

These are books randomly selected from the cozy mystery section of our favorite used bookstore. My guess is that these books will entertain me enough, but I won’t feel any need to keep them. The goal was to read this stack of books before moving.

So far I’ve only finished one. We move next week.

But I will finish the pile, even if it means moving the books with me! Find me on Goodreads to follow my progress.

Oh, and that one I’ve read is “Death in the Air” by Kate Kingsbury. I enjoyed it enough to add the rest of the series to my “Want to Read” shelf on Goodreads. Read my review here.

Valentine Victorian

Valentine Victorian.

I love Victorian houses and this one is all decked out for Valentine's Day! With the snow falling outside and the warm lights shining in all the windows, this house is inviting you in for some hot chocolate and cookies.

Shop my holiday collection.

Ash Wednesday in the Nursery*

Today for my church’s Ash Wednesday service, I sat in the nursery with four little faces looking up at me, asking me to read the pile of books they had chosen. Book by book, the pile lessened, and yet they still sat at my feet and listened. Afterwards, several people said “thank you” or “I’m sorry” that I had to miss the actual service to be in the nursery. And I murmured back the appropriate response. But in my heart I knew God was in the nursery this morning.

I’ll be honest with you. Sometimes children’s ministry doesn’t feel exciting. I’ve been there, sweating and exhausted, wondering if I’m making any sort of headway or planting any seed in these children’s lives. I tell myself at least I’m here for the parents, so they can be in “big church” and their children are safe and cared for. And I sort of trust God that this is good work, after all, we know Jesus loved children and cared for them deeply. But it’s all just words, because sometimes it feels like a chore.

But God is in the nursery.

God’s economy is different than ours. The first shall be last; the last shall be made first. Seek first God’s kingdom, not money, not power. The widow’s offering of almost nothing was more valuable than a fortune. God himself came to earth, not as a king, but as a baby. God’s economy is different than ours. 

Children’s ministry might feel small, it might even feel pointless, it might even feel boring. But it matters to God. God’s economy is different than ours. 

So if you spend your morning caring for even one small child... that is what brings God glory. And I know God was in our nursery this morning.

*originally written February 26, 2020

Valentine Village

Valentine Village. Available now in my shop!

A Life of Freedom and Abundance

“We were never hardwired to be free, if by ‘freedom’ we mean an independent, self-sufficient life. We were created by God to be connected to something vastly bigger than ourselves. We were designed to have our lives organized and directed by an agenda that is bigger than our truncated personal desires and goals. We were carefully built by God to have every aspect of our personhood connected to him and his plans for us, and when we reject him, we don’t live autonomously; we replace him with something or someone….

“He is freeing us from slavery to what is not true and cannot deliver. He is rescuing us from serving what will never give us life. He is protecting us from seeking hope where hope will never be found. It really is true - his call to obey is a tool of his rescuing grace….

“God’s call to obey doesn’t end your life; it is meant to protect the life that only he can give you.”

-Paul David Tripp, New Morning Mercies: A Daily Gospel Devotional

Books Read in 2020

Number of books read through the years. I didn’t quite make my goal of 100 this year. I’ll go ahead and thank the pandemic for that one.

This year, I am resurrecting an old tradition on my blog in Januarys! That is to list the books I read in the previous year and hopefully offer up some suggestions (and warnings) to my readers.

A few notes about the list:

1. I did not link to the books, because let’s be honest, who has time for that? I think I gave you enough information to find the book if you’d like to.

2. You will notice many children and young adult books on the list. My motivations for this were twofold: One is that I just enjoy a lot of young adult books! They tend to have more fantastical and magical elements than books written for adults. I also wanted to make more of an effort to read books that my daughter (10) is reading. This has opened up many conversations for us and I hope it also shows her that I am interested in her life. Those were my initial motivations, but I have realized several other unintended blessings! In my work in children’s ministry at our church, I am able to engage with the kids on their level - from young boys reading “Captain Underpants” to older girls reading Natalie Lloyd! Not only this, but occasionally I have been a resource to parents who have children reading the books but haven’t read the books themselves. I can offer a Christian adult perspective, as well as suggest topics of conversation based on the book for the parents to engage in with their child. What an unexpected blessing from something I enjoy anyway!

3. If you pay attention, you might see that I have started a lot of different series of books, but I rarely finish them. This is for various reasons, one of which being that I tend to get obsessive, and if I just push through book after book in the series, I am no earthly good to anyone. So I usually take a break between books, and by the time I no longer care that much, I have forgotten most of the previous book and don’t have much desire to pick up the series again! (One of my goals for 2021 is to continue various series that I have started.)

4. Many of these books have reviews written by me on Goodreads if you would like more information (or feel free to contact me).

Books Read in 2020

James Herriot's Treasury for Children, James Herriot

Flavia de Luce series #1-7, Alan Bradley

The Arctic Incident, Eoin Colfer

Lizzy & Jane, Katherine Reay

The Adventure of the Dying Detective, Arthur Conan Doyle

The Road Back to You: An Enneagram Journey to Self-Discovery, Ian Morgan Cron

Taliesin (The Pendragon Cycle #1), Stephen R. Lawhead

Murder Most Malicious (A Lady and Lady's Maid Mystery, #1), Alyssa Maxwell

Full: Food, Jesus, and the Battle for Satisfaction, Asheritah Ciuciu

The Green Ember (The Green Ember, #1), S.D.   Smith

Frozen 2: Forest of Shadows, Kamilla Benko

Sacramental Life: Spiritual Formation Through the Book of Common Prayer, David A. deSilva

The Beautiful Mystery (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #8), Louise Penny

Misery Loves Maggody (Arly Hanks, #11), Joan Hess

Mischief in Maggody (Arly Hanks, #2), Joan Hess

The Key to Extraordinary, Natalie Lloyd

Discipline That Lasts a Lifetime: The Best Gift You Can Give Your Kids: Dr. Ray Answers Your Frequently Asked Questions, Ray Guarendi

The Glass Bird Girl (Knight's Haddon, #1), Esme Kerr

In Dublin's Fair City (Molly Murphy Mysteries, #6), Rhys Bowen

The Problim Children, Natalie Lloyd

The Return of Sherlock Holmes (Sherlock Holmes, #6), Arthur Conan Doyle

Death from a Top Hat, Clayton Rawson

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children, #1), Ransom Riggs

Big Little Lies, Liane Moriarty

The Sabbath: Its Meaning for Modern Man, Abraham Joshua Heschel

One for the Money (Stephanie Plum, #1), Janet Evanovich

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Chronicles of Narnia, #1), C.S. Lewis

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter, #4), J.K. Rowling

Erak's Ransom (Ranger's Apprentice, #7), John Flanagan

Tuesdays at the Castle (Castle Glower, #1), Jessica Day George

The Boxcar Children (The Boxcar Children, #1), Gertrude Chandler Warner

The Final Empire (Mistborn, #1), Brandon Sanderson

You Who? Why You Matter and How to Deal With It, Rachel Jankovic

Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, Nicholas D. Kristof

Teaching a Stone to Talk: Expeditions and Encounters, Annie Dillard

Present Over Perfect: Leaving Behind Frantic for a Simpler, More Soulful Way of Living, Shauna Niequist

Surprise Island (The Boxcar Children, #2), Gertrude Chandler Warner

Naughty in Nice (Her Royal Spyness Mysteries, #5), Rhys Bowen

What Alice Forgot, Liane Moriarty

Journey on a Runaway Train (The Boxcar Children Great Adventure #1), Gertrude Chandler Warner

The Mark of the Dragonfly, Jaleigh Johnson

Rodrick Rules (Diary of a Wimpy Kid, #2), Jeff Kinney

Dog Days (Diary of a Wimpy Kid, #4), Jeff Kinney

The Clue in the Papyrus Scroll (The Boxcar Children Great Adventure #2), Gertrude Chandler Warner

Captain Underpants and the Preposterous Plight of the Purple Potty People (Captain Underpants, #8), Dav Pilkey

The Last Mrs. Summers (Her Royal Spyness, #14), Rhys Bowen

The Shackleton Sabotage (The Boxcar Children Great Adventure #4), Gertrude Chandler Warner

The Detour of the Elephants (The Boxcar Children Great Adventure #3), Dee Garretson

Tell Me, Pretty Maiden (Molly Murphy Mysteries, #7), Rhys Bowen

The Last Straw (Diary of a Wimpy Kid, #3), Jeff Kinney

A Stitch in Time (A Needlecraft Mystery, #3), Monica Ferris

Crime Brûlée (A Carolyn Blue Culinary Mystery, #1), Nancy Fairbanks

The Khipu and the Final Key (The Boxcar Children Great Adventure #5), Gertrude Chandler Warner

In a Gilded Cage (Molly Murphy, #8), Rhys Bowen

The Hobbit, or There and Back Again, J.R.R. Tolkien

Mississippi Trial, 1955, Chris Crowe

A Conventional Corpse (Claire Malloy, #13), Joan Hess

Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier

The 39 Clues, #1-7, Rick Riordan and other various authors

On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness (The Wingfeather Saga, #1), Andrew Peterson

Over the Moon, Natalie Lloyd

Mystery Ranch (The Boxcar Children, #4), Gertrude Chandler Warner

Guts, Raina Telgemeier

Sisters (Smile, #2), Raina Telgemeier

Smile (Smile, #1), Raina Telgemeier

Ghosts, Raina Telgemeier

Drama, Raina Telgemeier

Damsels in Distress (Claire Malloy, #16), Joan Hess

The story behind the story of Sheldon

I am in the final stages of writing, illustrating, editing, and publishing my next children’s book. It is a long process, especially when it’s more of a hobby than a full-time job! But I am very excited about it and I hope you will take some time to read it when it is finally available. 

Before it comes out, however, I want to tell you a little bit about how it came to be and what it is about.

It is the story of a hermit crab named Sheldon, who yearns for adventure, but instead lives in a glass tank in a pet shop. The idea for this story actually belongs to my Aunt Sue. She originally wrote a little story about Sheldon based on the true events. One summer, my cousin’s son bought two hermit crabs and one of the crabs got loose in their home. We all thought that crab was a goner! But sure enough, a few days later, he found the crab wedged up under the edge of the dog’s water bowl. And he was still alive! We all rejoiced that Sheldon had been found!

A couple years later, I found the little story she had written amidst a crisis going on with that same aunt: her beloved bird, Claude, had escaped out the front door and he was never seen again. This was when I asked her if I could adapt her “Sheldon” story into a children’s book. Somehow the two events seemed linked and resonated in my heart. It wasn’t until adapting the story a bit later did I realize why.

These were two stories of beloved creatures, one lost forever, and one found with much rejoicing. And isn’t that the story of us? Our good Father in heaven looks at us, his beloved creatures, and longs to be with us. And we, in our human nature, run from him. He longs to care for us, to provide for us, but we think we know better. We think his freedom costs too much. We fly out the front door thinking we are flying to freedom, but actually find death. But God is full of compassion, and if we turn back to Him, there is “rejoicing in heaven”. (Luke 15:7)

In adapting this story for a children’s book, I tried to match some elements with parables Jesus tells us in Luke 15. I would encourage you to read that passage with your children before or after reading my story about Sheldon and talk about similarities and differences. I hope this will open up a conversation about God’s unending love of us and his pursuit of us as a good Father.

Finally, thank you to Sue Burke for giving me permission to adapt her story. To Will Heckathorne for being a good father to little Sheldon the crab. And thank you in advance for picking up a copy when it is available.

What’s on the Book Pile? Library Edition

My library book haul and my favorite introvert mug

When I take my kids to the library, I like to stroll through the young adult section. I tell myself it’s because we’re in the children’s area already and I don’t want to leave my kids alone. But the truth is I like young adult books for easy reading and good entertainment.

So here’s my haul from this past trip:

The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
I’m not sure I’ve read this Sherlock Holmes! So this is exciting.

The Girl with the Glass Bird by Esme Kerr.
I’ll be honest, I picked this book because it had a pretty cover and it had that hardly “Mystery” sticker on the spine.

The Key to Extraordinary by Natalie Lloyd.
I read this author previously based on the recommendation of my friend, Miriam, and thoroughly enjoyed it.

The Problim Children by Natalie Lloyd.

Ranger’s Apprentice: Erak’s Ransom by John Flanagan.
A young adult fantasy series that I’ve been reading for years now.

Is Wealth a Actually a Curse?

In Sunday School we are studying Solomon, who really is a tragic hero (or maybe cautionary tale?) of the Bible. He had a lot to live up to in his father, King David, “a man after God’s own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14, Acts 13:22). In the beginning, there is such hope: Solomon is given the chance to ask God for anything and he asks God for wisdom - already a wise choice! No doubt a king needs wisdom almost more than anything! So God, as he does when someone asks for wisdom (James 1:5) gives it to him. Solomon, perhaps the wisest man in the Bible, or even all of history, writes several of the “wisdom books” of the Bible: Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes, and Proverbs. But then God does more, he gives Solomon wealth beyond imagining! So much so that the Queen of Sheba - a wealthy woman in her own right - is overwhelmed by his “wisdom and wealth”! (1 Kings 10:4-5)

A picture from our curriculum (The Gospel Project) of Solomon writing his Wisdom books

Sadly, though, the story takes a turn. Solomon strays from the Lord and starts worshiping other gods and His reign marks the end of the united nation of Israel. 

This is one of the hardest stories in the Bible for me. I look at Solomon and see so much hope and wisdom (and that was even before asking God for wisdom!). I wonder what went wrong. But I already know what went wrong and want to pretend that I don’t. Wealth. Wealth is where it all went wrong. 

There is no doubt that money corrupts and the love of money is the root of all evil (1 Timothy 6:10). You can see it running rampant in our society today, even among Christian leaders. We look at these pastors or speakers, who are gaining popularity and wealth, with so much hope. But then we are so disappointed when they fail or the truth they’ve been hiding comes out. But who is strong enough to carry the burden of wealth?

Ironically, Solomon himself seems to know that the pursuit of money and love of wealth can never satisfy. He even says in Ecclesiastes 5:10, “Whoever loves money never has enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income. This too is meaningless.” And this is just one of many verses from his wisdom books pertaining to wealth and greed. 

Some may say that Solomon’s downfall was his love of foreign women (or just women in general) and followed his lustful desires wherever they took him. But I would argue that wealth is what brought him there in the first place. Wealth leads to power, and power and wealth together lead to ruin and destruction. Again from 1 Timothy 6 (vs. 9, which immediately precedes the “love of money” verse quoted above), “Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.”

So I ask myself, why did God do this to Solomon? Why give him so much wealth? I am sure most people who read this think “God was rewarding Solomon for asking for wisdom!” Indeed, even when I was a child, I remembering thinking, if God ever asks me what I want, I’ll say wisdom and hope he’ll give me wealth, too! Wealth looks like a blessing, but is it actually a curse?

This is a simplistic thought. Solomon’s sinful nature and lack of repentance led to his downfall. But wealth made it easier. It is something worth thinking about today and even asking ourselves. You see, when I said earlier that I didn’t want to acknowledge what I already knew, it’s because I see it in me as well. I likehaving money. I like buying, and shopping, and filling my home and heart with the clutter that money can buy. We treat this as a silly foible. But it should terrify us. Jesus said, “You cannot love both God and money.” (Matthew 6:24) And because of that, I am terrified. 

So I ask myself, and I’ll ask you, in our pursuit of wealth, are we pursuing something that will be a blessing or a curse? No one is strong enough to carry the “blessing” of wealth. So if you gain it, or have it, hold your hands open and ask him to take it and use it. And if you are pursuing it, stop. Pursue God instead. Don’t end up like Solomon and end up in ruin and destruction. Trust me, you are not strong enough to hold on to it yourself. I am not strong enough. Just look at Solomon, the wisest man in the world. 

“Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.” 1 Timothy 6:17

Adding a note here at the bottom to address a few criticisms by my dear husband.

I perhaps did not emphasize that it is not wealth that is the root of all evil, but the love of wealth. The reason I didn’t distinguish these two is because I’m not sure they can be separated. I think it’s impossible to have wealth and not love it a just a little bit. This is what I see in myself (and maybe you’re a better person than I am, that’s fine) and this is what scares me. 

Next, he says, is that I’m asking people to do something that is logically inconsistent: if you love money, how can you hold your hands open and ask God to take it and use it? Well, he’s right, I should have said it this way: you can’t. You need Jesus to even get you to this place. And then you have to do it again every day until either you have victory in this area (which honestly you probably won’t, which is kinda the point of this post), or until you lose all your money, or until you die. But never give in to this struggle (or “logical inconsistency”) because then comes the ruin and destruction. 

And finally, it’s true, we don’t know exactly what led to Solomon’s destruction. The whole post is based on a supposition (hopefully one that doesn’t diminish the truth, though). But I think I’m right and it’s my blog. ☺️ 

Why doesn’t God just kill Satan?

“Why doesn’t God just kill Satan?”

It was another conversation in a car ride. It’s just inevitable. I put on music, I want to lose myself in my own thoughts, but the kids constantly drag me back to the now. And then drop questions on me like this.

“God, give me wisdom,” I think to myself. And I know he does. (James 1:5)

My five-year-old son is obsessed with superhero’s and the bad guys associated with them. In fact, I think there’s a small part of him that’s rooting for the snake in the Garden story! So when he asked this question, it wasn’t in a wistful “I-wish-God-would-just-finish-off-Satan-for-good” kinda way. It was a little more taunting, like “If God is so powerful, why doesn’t he just kill the bad guy?”

I understood this question. It’s one we all ask, isn’t it? Just maybe in a little more mature way: If God is so powerful and good, why is there pain? Why is there sin? Why do bad things happen to good people?

And believe me, I am not here to answer those questions! (Those are questions worth pondering, but I don’t think anyone has all the those answers. And that’s OK.)

By now, my daughter, the rule-follower, picked up the questions out of genuine curiosity and maybe concern. So I needed some sort of reply...

“Well, God will defeat Satan in the end,” I said, dropping some truth on them, while trying to stall for a good answer. “But in the meantime, if there was no sin in the world, there would be no way for us to choose God. Like in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve knew and loved God, but they still had to choose every day not to eat the forbidden fruit. If they didn’t have that option, it wouldn’t have been a choice to obey God.”

Silence. 

“Do you know what I mean that we have to have a choice?”

Blank looks.

“OK, let’s say Audrey really likes a boy so she decides to make him a love potion. She gives him the love potion and he immediately falls in love with her. But it’s not real love, he didn’t really have a choice. It’s all because of the potion. Now Audrey, would you rather that person love you with the love potion or without?”

For a while there were just giggles and horrified looks at the thought of a boy liking her (or her liking a boy!), but finally she answered: “Without.”

“Why?” I asked. (Honestly this was the hardest part. I want to keep talking, to explain. But I was really trying to get them there on their own.)

“Because it’s not real if he’s had a potion. He doesn’t really have a choice to love me.”

“Exactly! So if God killed Satan and we lived with no sin, there would be no choice but to love and serve God! We would be more like robots than people with minds of our own.”

I think the conversation ended there, but my mind stayed on the topic for a while. I know that sin has consequences, and that is why there is so much pain in the world. But it is also amazing to me how God can even redeem sin and use it for his glory and our good. 

And it’s amazing to me that He shows up in these car rides, when I’m tired and even a little annoyed at all the questions. He still shows up, and the results are priceless.