Hula-hooping Research

My little sister was just that.  Little.  She was so petite that I felt gigantic by comparison (being the more shapely sister), and in the early sixties she was awfully cute in her mini skirts. Cookie (my sister) could climb on the monkey bars, slide down hills on a cardboard box, and hula hoop. She could keep that hula hoop going for what seemed like forever.  I, however, could not.  It was not my thing.  I was the studious sister. That's what I said, but secretly, I wanted to hula hoop, too.

A few weeks ago, a friend showed me her weighted hula hoop.  Knowing my previous less than illustrious history with hooping, I was not optimistic.  The idea of exercising in the comfort of air conditioning while I watched reruns of McGuyver on Netflix was awfully appealing, though.  With one-click shopping, a weighted hoop of my own was on the way in no time.  The day the hoop arrived, I was glad I could try it out in the privacy of my home with no one to see.  I hate to say this, but I couldn't make a single round with that hoop. After longer than I am willing to confess, I finally made ten revolutions and I yelped out loud.  I was thrilled.

Here's the strange thing.  Nearly everyone who has visited lately has tried the hoop.  Oddly enough, the skinny girls can hula-hoop forever.  Round and round.  My sister, not quite so petite as she once was, could get a few rounds but nothing like when we were children. (I am only a little ashamed to say I was kinda glad.)

Today is Sister Saturday, the day every month when my sister and I hang out together. As you might expect, I have brought my hula hoop.  Today, we have been blessed that her daughter and two granddaughters have joined us, and we have had a girlie girl day. Fun!  My niece is excused from hula hooping because of recent surgery, but I have recruited everyone else to help with a little research. A little hula-hoop research.  You should see those girls go.  They can really hula hoop!

We have all taken turns and here are the results:
Brother-in-law Joe (not as slim as he once was) managed to hula hoop a total of 2.6 seconds.  He hoops like I do.  Poorly.
My little sister, former hula-hooper extraordinaire, hooped for 13.8 seconds.  She says it was not this hard when she was little!
I managed to make it 15.1 seconds.  Sad to say, but that was an improvement.  After all my practice, I am still not much of a hooper.  (In my defense, I had just eaten two bowls of gumbo.  In her defense, so had my sister.)
Nephew Ben managed 31.5 seconds.  He was fast as lightening with flashy style and could have gone longer if he had not been showing off.
Grandniece Lindsey is as tall and slim as a Vogue model at thirteen and she hooped 8 minutes and 22
seconds.  Non-stop.  She was having a grand time.  It was amazing!
Grandniece Gracee is as petite as her Nana was a few decades ago. She, of course, was determined to best her sister. She hula-hooped for 21 minutes and 33 seconds, smiling and chatting the entire time. She, too, had a great time.  It wasn't work, and it wasn't really exercise.  It was fun.  I was astounded!

Here is my interpretation of the data:  My frantic efforts to get the hoop in motion were counterproductive. The bigger my hip motion, the quicker the hoop fell.  The girls were able to hoop and hoop and hoop.  The motion of their hips was subtle but steady. They were relaxed and barely moving. Their style was nothing flashy, they just  made a good steady start and kept going, and they had a grand time doing it.

Relaxed, slow, and steady.  That's the way to go the distance in hula-hooping.

I was really startled by those results.  I tend to pack as much as possible into every day and, as a result, some days it feels like I'm moving at the speed of sound.  I get lots accomplished, and I really like the pace, but more than one time I've just burned out.  I hula-hoop just like I live my life, with all-out effort, working as hard as I possibly can.  I burn a few calories, but relaxed and steady? Nope. That's not my style. Fun? Who has time? After watching those little girls and that weighted hula-hoop, I'm wondering if maybe I should reconsider. Tonight, it looked like relaxed and steady is more
productive than I realized.  For sure, it was considerably more enjoyable!

Maybe you are running at the speed of sound, too.  Are you exhausted yet?  If not, you probably will be before long.  Why not take a lesson from the hooping-experts? Slow down, relax, keep moving steadily along.  You might just have a lot more fun!

Frogs: The Blessing in the Plague

Friday is not just my day off. The best Fridays are also Yard Work Day. Today was one of those wonderful days when the only place I need to be is home, and the only thing I must do is whatever I want to do. What a grand day!

I had just finished cleaning my garden shed and moved to the herb garden. All those empty cardboard boxes were going into the herb garden as part of yet another weed control program. (Cover the ground with cardboard, cut out around the plants, cover over with pine straw. It's going to work great!  I hope.)

As I secured the cardboard and scattered pine straw, a tiny frog jumped on my hand. (Well, it could've been a toad. I didn't look very close) I shook it off and continued working. Pretty soon, I realized there was a multitude of frogs in that garden, and they were hopping on me!

Of course, I started grumbling about the frogs and thinking about Moses and Pharaoh. Mid-grumble, I sensed that still, small voice in my heart. "What do frogs eat?" I had an epiphany, right there between the rosemary and the basil. They eat bugs. Flies, gnats, mosquitoes. Frogs are great for gardens. 

That started me thinking about the plagues and their order. First, the Nile turned to blood, then the frogs came. It was only after the frogs were in place that the gnats came. No one realized it at the time, but the frogs were a living demonstration of judgement tempered with mercy and grace. Gnats are a yummy meal for frogs. By sending those frogs at the beginning, God had given a way out of the plague to come. Isn't that amazing? The frogs those Egyptians probably hated were actually a blessing in disguise! 

There's no doubt that those bug-eating frogs in my garden are a blessing, and I have the healthy herbs to prove it. How many times does God allow something hard into our lives that seems bad at the  time, but ends up being a blessing because it prepares us for something yet to come? I can think of several instances in my own life, and you probably can too. 

This afternoon, I'm thanking God for the frogs - in my herb garden and in my life, and praying you will do the same. 

Battle in the Wilderness: Sweet Solitude (Luke 4:1,2a)

"Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led around by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days..."(Luke 4:1, 2a NASB)

In this passage, Jesus has just begun public service with His baptism. The time for ministry was limited. In three short years, He would offer Himself as a sacrifice for the sin of the world. With just over a thousand days for preaching and teaching, Jesus chose to invest the first forty days in the wilderness.

It seems like an odd way to begin redeeming the world, doesn't it? No one to hear His preaching. No one to teach. No one to heal. We think of this as time alone, but Scripture clearly says He was led about by the Spirit. Just as Moses before Him, He spent this time in the presence of God's Spirit. In a later verse, we see that this was also a forty day fast. Ah, it begins to make sense!

In those times of solitude and sacrifice, all the usual distractions are removed, and there is a sweetness of communion with God that can be found nowhere else. Jesus Himself taught about fasting as a private mode of worship and sacrifice, warning that we are to make no outward sign of fasting for others to see. He who was sinless prepared for service in the most important way of all, quietly, privately, communing with our Lord.

Denying ourselves in this culture is not at all popular, but the power to be found there remains. For today, ask yourself how serious you are about your prayer concerns and the spiritual needs of your children and loved ones. Is your concern great enough to spend time fasting and in solitude with our Lord? If so, offer a sacrifice of fasting (either food or pleasures) as you pray today.

The sweetest times with our Lord can be found when all the distractions are left behind. Today, pray for a willing heart to step aside with Him. Pray, too, that our children and loved ones will be drawn to the sweetness of Spirit they see in us as a result of our time with The Lord.

A Little Good News

As the news of the shooting in the Capital scrolled across the screen, we all began to express our dismay.  "Oh, no.  Not more shooting."  The tragedy of pointless death was heartbreaking.  As we watched, someone said, "Well, that might have been just an average person...  There's nothing but bad news on all the time. It's more than I can take, so it's no wonder they lost it." 

This complaint of no good news seemed about right to me.  I watched the headlines off and on all afternoon, and never once did I see a piece of "good news".  Taxes, Obamacare, Government shut down... on and on.  Maybe she was right.  There is no good news.

I began to think "That can not be right", so I Google'd "good news".  This was totally shocking to me, but there is a TON of good news being reported, by the major media, on websites dedicated to good news.  Apparently this "good news"doesn't qualify for their primary websites, but there are alternate sites where good news is still available.

According to ABC's website (the good news one - www.abcnews.go.com), Zach Hodskin is a 17 year old high school student in Georgia who loves basketball, hits 60% of his shots, and has been offered a position on the Florida Gator's team for next year.  What makes this remarkable is that Zach has only one hand.  He was born missing the lower half of his left arm.  Zach is a remarkable young man.  Just as remarkable is that, in a town in Georgia, a coach saw a boy with one hand and gave him a chance.  I never played basketball, but I'm not sure most coaches would be excited about a one-handed player.  Someone in Georgia was, though, and it payed off in an amazing way.  Perhaps more important, is that the boys who grew up playing basketball with Zach see a team member and not a handicap.  One coach, giving one boy a chance, has made a difference for more than Zach.  He has likely changed his world for years to come.  That sounds like good news to me!

NBC news has a site (http://www.today.com/id/41743465/) entitled Today Good News.  Their site tells the story of two Girl Scout troops who were selling cookies and received an order for 6,000 boxes of cookies. The girls were thrilled and, of course, began to think about everything they would do with the money that they would earn.  Not only would it help with sending girls to camp, but money was also earmarked to help a Portland homeless shelter.  Little girls who wanted to make a difference had their hearts broken by the cruelty of someone who called the order a "joke".  When the Girl Scouts opened the office doors to start selling cookies, the townspeople had lined up into the parking lot, waiting for their chance to help.  Those sweet people in that town bought 4,000 boxes of those cookies by day's end. One day sales - 4000 boxes of cookies!  Can you imagine what that did for those little girls?  Will they ever get over people they did not know standing in line on an early Saturday morning to help them?  I expect not.  For years to come, those girls will remember that even strangers helped them, and when it comes their time to help, they will.  Their gifts to the homeless shelter will be all the more precious because of the miracle it took to provide them.  A little piece of their world was changed by the generosity of strangers.  That also sounds like good news to me!

When you Google, you are sure to find an entry for Wikipedia.  I thought you might be interested in what I found on Wikipedia when I Google'd "good news".  This is a direct quote:
"In Christianity, the gospel, also known as the Good News, is the message of Jesus, the Christ or Messiah - God's ruler promised by the Scriptures."  How very true!  I can't think of any better news than this:

"But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8)

Isn't that good news?  God didn't wait for us to clean ourselves up and get ourselves straightened out.  Jesus died for us to pay the penalty for our sin and set us free from its hold on our lives.  Now that is really good news. In fact, it's the best news of all!

Divine Encounters (Luke 3:22)

And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased. (Luke 3:22 KJV)

Yesterday, we saw that Jesus obeyed in the issue of baptism, and when He prayed, heaven opened. Today's verse tells us that, when Heaven opened, the Holy Ghost took the bodily form of a dove, flew down, and as I read this, "descended upon Him".  In my mind's eye, I see a dove sitting on Jesus's shoulder.

We have grown so accustomed to this verse that it hardly seems unusual at all, but consider this. John in his camel skin outfit is in the Jordan River with Jesus, having just baptized Him. Jesus is dripping wet, and suddenly a big white bird flies down and lands on His shoulder. Since this is the Holy Ghost in dove form, Jesus knows this bird, because it is part of the Trinity with Him, and contains His essence. No one else knows this dove nor do they know that it is the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove. I don't have to imagine very hard to know that the bystanders were not only stunned, their eyes were riveted on Jesus. (Which is, admittedly, the perfect place to be looking)

While the crowd is standing there with their mouths gaping, a Voice from heaven booms out. Clearly understandable, the Voice says, "This is my much loved Son, and I am well-pleased with Him." Right there in the middle of the Jordan River, the people experienced the Holy Trinity in a profound and unforgettable way. They probably told everyone they saw for weeks about these remarkable events. Really, they were probably talking about the Divine Encounter that occurred in the least likely place, at the most unexpected time, for the rest of their lives.

Divine Encounters are not always as dramatic as this one, but they always leave us changed and astounded. In what way have you experienced the divine recently? Where have you seen our Lord demonstrating His power and His love? Are you telling everyone you see about this wonderful news?

Pray today that our children, our loved ones, will come face to face with the divine in an unassailable way that cannot be mistaken for anything except God Himself, and that it will leave them not only astounded, but also changed to be more like Jesus.

Gilding the Statue

Half-way through yesterday, my college-student son sent me a text.  "Hey Mom.  Did you know the government shut down?"  He knows I'm not always up to date on the latest current events and likes to keep me informed.  The whole shutdown situation, however, has prompted me to check the news a little closer this week.

This evening, I was looking at the New York Times app on my iPhone and saw the oddest thing.  Long story short, a restoration of the General Sherman statue in Central Park has been underway.  It was painstakingly covered with 1,200 square feet of gold leaf.  What sounds really crazy, at least to this sparkly girl, is that it was too shiny.  To correct the shininess problem, gilders were hired to glaze the statue with darker glazes.  It gets interesting here.  The dark glaze "did not dull the gold.  It accentuated it."  The dark glaze brought out all the detail of the statue.  It made it better and more "human".

It is a stretch, I know, but when I read about gilding the statue, I kept thinking, "We beheld His glory."  I looked up the verse just to be sure.  "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.  John 1:14 KJV  That statue restoration has provided an unintentional demonstration of a Biblical principle.  When our Lord Jesus came to earth, He was filled with the glory of God, and had a luster to Him that rivaled those streets of gold to which He was accustomed.  Not even the dirt and dust of this earth could dull that shine.  Instead, it brought out the details and made His Father easier to recognize.  Jesus didn't dull the glory of God.  He accentuated it.

I love some sparkle, and "Have a super sparkly day!" could easily be a theme for me.  Not one of my jewels, not one of my rhinestone sparkles, however, can rival the sparkle that comes from Jesus inside, reflecting the glory of God through the dust of this world.  After a long, hard day, I don't feel exactly sparkly, but that does not matter one bit.  What matters is whether or not the grime of the world dulled the luster of my Lord shining through me. 

The Prayer That Opened Heaven (Luke 3:21)

Now when all the people were baptized, Jesus was also baptized, and while He was praying, heaven was opened, (Luke 3:21NASB)

The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. (James 5:16b KJV)

We could write a book about the baptism of Jesus, but today we are looking at the last part of this verse, the part about what happened when Jesus prayed. I do recognize that we need the next verse to complete the thought. With that said, though, this is an astoundingly profound bit of Scripture.

Heaven opened while Jesus was praying.

Wow!  Jesus (Matt 3:13-17) told John that He had come for baptism "to fulfill all righteousness". He was not being baptized because He had repented of sin. He was being baptized as an act of obedience that showed us the way.  There was a three step process here:
1. Obedience to the Father
2. Prayer
3. Heaven opened

James (the brother of Jesus) would later write about the effectual, fervent prayers of a righteous man. They accomplish much. We have a tendency to think that prayer accomplishes much, but that is not exactly what Scripture says.

Here we see that Jesus demonstrated heaven-opening prayer, and it began with obedience. He was perfect and sinless, but he was also obedient, and when He prayed, things happened. When He prayed, heaven opened.

James writes that the prayer of a righteous man accomplishes much. None of us are righteous, but we can have the righteousness of Christ when we put our trust in Him.  Obedience moves us closer to righteousness, thereby moving us closer to "availing much" prayer.

I am not saying that God only hears the prayers of perfect people. I am saying, however, that, when we are in right relationship with our Lord, we can pray more effectively. We can allow Christ to pray through us.  What happens then? When Christ prayed by the Jordan that day, heaven opened. Wow! That was some availing much prayer!

If we want truly "availing much" prayer (and who doesn't?) then we must move closer to "righteous" status. When I work in the prayer room, my first action is always to get clean before The Lord by asking Him to show me my heart and what is displeasing to Him. He never fails to find something that needs to go. It is only after some divine heart-cleansing that I am ready for availing prayer. I'm not so good about that in my daily prayer. I tend to pray constantly throughout the day, but if I started with thorough heart cleansing every day, repenting of all God finds that displeases Him, how much more effective could I be?

Today, let's begin the work of interceding for our children and our loved ones by praying for ourselves. Let's pray for a heart checkup, a Divine examination of our hearts, asking Him to show us what needs to go. Let's take a step closer to righteousness. Only then will we be ready to pray that those we love will take steps toward righteousness too.

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