Christ is NO Sheriff!

Christ is NO Sheriff!

Kinda catchy, isn't it?  Martin Luther said that in his commentary on Galatians (1538).  Think about it. . . what does a sheriff or any other law enforcement officer do for the community?  Hold people accountable for transgressing the law, right?  It's their job; sometimes it seems like they enjoy it all too much- handing out tickets to speeders, waiting and watching in obscure locations that are not exactly out of sight, but if you don't know the lay of the land you won't see their patrol cars until it is much too late!

I have never gotten a warning from a police officer before when I have been going too fast, that is until last Saturday.  When I first came to Monroeville I got three tickets in about 18 months.  That was nine years ago and I have slowed down considerably since then, but on Saturday we were very busy with cleaning, cooking for company, and I had to get our son to swim practice and back before our friends arrived.  So, I was going 35 in a 25 mph zone.  As soon as I saw him I knew he had me!  I just pulled over and waited.  "Another 90 bucks down the drain," I said to myself.  Darn it!  But alas, for the very first time in the history of Amy Christine Fisher Little. . . I received a friendly warning.  Imagine my surprise as something different happened from my previous experiences!  Relief. Gratitude. A heartfelt smile and "thank you" and before he could say it to me I said to him, "I will slow down, Sir!"

In Luther's commentary on Galatians, he takes up Paul's argument about the efficacy of Justification by Grace through Faith and how human desire to work our way into God's grace is unacceptable, "to seek Justification by works of the law is to reject the grace of God.  I ask you, what sin can be more horrible than to reject the grace of God, and to refuse the righteousness of Christ?. . . There is no sin which Paul and the other apostles detested more than when a person despises the grace of God in Christ Jesus.  Still there is no sin more common."  

Christ is NO sheriff!

He is our Savior, not our accuser.  He is the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, not the officer who comes after us, lights flashing, sirens blowing, engines racing to track us down and give us a ticket, or worse assign us to prison.  Christ is our freedom.  Christ is our refuge.  Christ is our forgiveness.

We are called, as ones who believe, to accept this free gift of grace without protest, without adding to it, without helping it along.  Just say "yes" to his love in your life.  It's as simple as that friends!

Be blessed today and always!
Amy

Image credit:uncyclopedia.wikia.com

Thankful. . .

^{Psalm 107:1} Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.

How incredibly blessed we are!  How often do we simply stope and recognize that?  How amazingly blessed I am!  Sometimes it's easy to forget this fact when life gets to spinning out of control and every day is crammed with meetings, chauffeuring children about, phone calls, cooking and the endless laundry that seems to accumulate at our house.  But all of those things point to blessings!  

To have meetings to attend means that I have employment and involvement with the community I live and serve in; and I love my job 99% of the time.  I love the people I serve; they are wonderful and gifted and loving!  They are constantly teaching me about God's love, showing me how to generous, modeling for me what it means to be a disciple of Christ in the world.  

To have to chauffeur my kids to swim team practice, ballet class, jazz class, piano lessons, Key Club meetings, DIRT meetings, Academic Challenge practice etc. means that I am blessed to have two wonderful kids who are bright, active, healthy, learning and contributing!  So far, I have immensely enjoyed watching them grow up and become the people that God intended for them to be. .  . I don't see that changing!

To receive phone calls means that I have a lovely mother and sweet mother in law who call me and check on me!  I have wonderful friends who want to talk to me, to be in my life, to share their joys and sorrows with me.  I have some amazing friends whom I love (I'm the kind of person who has a small number of extremely close friends I call "kindred spirits" rather than having an enormous number of casual friends. And to find people who are kindred spirits is an incredible gift!)  

To be constantly cooking means that I have a family to feed, some people don't have a family, and some people don't have food.  We have food on our table and we get to enjoy it together.  Plus, my son who is growing like a weed (14 and already over 6 feet tall) is always hungry but it so appreciative of what I put on his plate.  He always compliments my cooking and says, "Thanks for the pancakes, pizza, spaghetti, tacos, soup, etc. Mom."  

Now the laundry, that might be another story- perhaps I should leave that off my list of things to be thankful for, especially now that my washer won't spin right, leaving the clothes clean but still soaked, and my dryer takes three cycles to dry everything!  But no, I do give thanks for the laundry because it is a sign of life and activity around here.  And my life would be rather dull if these people that I live with and share my life with were not here. . . Noah who constantly makes me laugh with his dry wit and character voices. . . Anna who entertains me by dancing, singing, and conversing about all sorts of topics that a nine year old shouldn't care about. . . and Jeff who has constantly supported all my hair brained ideas like  going to seminary (twice), heading to the Trappist monastery for four days of silence. . . always leaving him at home to hold things together.  

I am blessed.  That's all there is to it!  Thanks be to God for giving me the greatest gifts and thereby reminding me of his never failing love. 

 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!  I know that you are blessed as well!  Thanks for reading, you bless me. 

Sloooowwww it down!

I know you do it too!  You rush around your day, run from here to there, there to here, barely stopping to notice if you are breathing.  Sun up to sun down you are moving, talking, shuffling, reading, writing, serving, listening to others, driving, fetching, cooking, cleaning up messes, handling crises, organizing chaos. . . whew. . . when does it end?  Isn't it about time you simply slow down?  Don't you think it's the right time to go just a little bit slower so you notice the last roses on the bushes before they get frosted out, see the kids in the neighborhood jump into those piles of raked leaves, listen to the words of a sappy song on the radio, hear the story your child is trying to tell you about an interaction she had in school. . . don't you think it's time to downshift your gears a bit?

I had a wakeup call this past week as I rushed through all the tasks and work I had on my schedule.  I came home one afternoon this week to hear from my daughter that I had left the front burner of the stove on.  She discovered this as she put a plastic container on top of what she thought was a cool appliance.  The reality is that I could have burned the house down!  That's an extremely scary thought.  When I was a teenager our dog jumped up on the kitchen counter to get something that was up there that she wanted, she hit the control on the stove and some snack bags caught on fire. . . we came home to a burning kitchen that had to be completely gutted.  We were lucky.  I was lucky this week.  But I think it means I am supposed to slow down, pay attention, focus a little better rather than being so scattered.

The other part of slowing down is that there is so much to enjoy, however I tend to miss much of it when I am over-scheduling myself, failing to say "no" to things that could be left to someone else to do, and choosing what is most important and making time for that rather than filling my day with busy-ness.  How about you?  Are you encouraged to take a slower pace today?  Can you stop and fill your lungs with some fresh air so you can actually think a bit clearer?  Can you do something good to take care of yourself, your spirit, your body and mind today?

As for me. . . time to get my nikes on because my pup is waiting for me to go for a walk.  So off I go for some quality time, some quiet time with my Martin Luther.  Peace be with you friends!
amy

A Morning Prayer

Here is another piece I wrote while on silent retreat at the Abbey of the Genesee.  I offer it to you as a morning prayer. . .

Oh God, you brought me through the dark night to see the sun waking up once more.
Your steadfast love endures forever.
Your promises are true and faithful.  
I am filled with a deep sense of gratitude this morning.
Rested.
Tears dried.
Eyes fully open to see what wonders you will show me this day.
Thank you for staying with me in the darkness.
Thank you for walking me out of it.
Reveal to me your holy will for this short life you've gifted me with.
All praise and glory belong to you, Lord Jesus.
You've turned my mourning into dancing again!
Amen.

November morning along the Genesee River

Striving for the Impossible-- Perfection

I know a lot of perfectionists.  Some people might say that I am one of them.  If I am, I'm a recovering perfectionist.  I have learned much over the past 15 years about "letting go" of things that don't really matter all that much in the grand scheme of things.  Things like a super clean house in the midst of crazy busy-ness.  There just isn't always time to "do" everything!  Something has to give.

The thing about perfectionism is that it's one of the great lies.  There's no such thing as perfect- except for Jesus Christ, "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." (2 Corinthians 5:21) As for humans, perfection does not exist.  But we sure as shootin' strive for it, don't we?  As a culture (think of all the plastic surgeries you could have to create a 'perfect' face or body.  Problem is at some point you only end up looking plastic rather than perfect), as families (we worry how our kids are perceived by others and put undue pressure on them to perform), as a church (if we aren't sure we can actually "do it" then we will not take the risk; failure is not an option).  

However. . . 
Jesus never called us to be perfect.  Did you hear that?  Think about it for a moment before you go on reading----- Jesus NEVER called us to be perfect.  He never said we had to be number one, first in line, the best or the brightest.  


He only called us to show up.  


Show up and try.


Show up and do your best.


Show up and take a risk.


But show up no matter what you do.  


The promise is that he will do the rest.  The perfect One will take over when we get to the point where we have done all we can do to the best of our imperfect human ability.  That takes trust.  Perfectionism is a lack of trust in the One who swoops in and gets the job done.  Perfectionism is nothing less than putting all our trust in ourselves rather in the One who "bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live in righteousness." (1 Peter 2: 24)  


So here's a piece of advice that I've said to myself in the mirror on many occasions, "Get over yourself!"  Just show up and assent to letting Christ use your best to get the job done according to his will, not yours.  
Besides, perfectionism is such pressure!  It's such a burden to carry, and it drives everyone else nuts!  


Have a blessed day!
amy

Writing Our Own Psalms to God

The Psalms were the ancient hymnbook of Israel preserved by the community of faith, used in worship and praise of God, a reminder of who God is, was and ever shall be.  I wonder what it would be like to write our own psalms to God.  Might we encourage one another to take this up as a spiritual discipline? I mean, people write hymns and praise music, right?  It's not much different really except that we don't often meditate on the words of hymns.  However, the words do get stuck in our heads and we find ourselves singing them in the shower, as we are jogging or walking or even grocery shopping!  That's one thing I love about memorizing hymnody and scripture- once you've spent significant time with it, turning it over and over in your mind, practicing the melody, paying attention to the harmony. . . it becomes a part of you forever.  No one can ever take it away from you once it becomes yours and you have it readily accessible when you need it, even if you don't have your hymn book or bible handy.  It might be a wonderful exercise in expressing our faith if we would let our pens fly freely over the paper, sharing with God our love for him.

I want to share with you something else I wrote while I was away at the Abbey of the Genesee last week.  It's a psalm I wrote in response to God "taking me to the mat," pinning me down and making me face my own darkness.  He brought me out, which was a bit of a surprise actually. . . but the best thing was he accompanied me through the birth canal I spoke of in yesterday's post (a place of utter darkness, a place where death is indeed a real possibility, but a place that forces one into light and life even though it's a painful process.)  So, here goes, it's simple, but sometimes simple is good I suppose. At least I hope it is because I'm just a simple person after all.

East Branch of the Huron River, Norwalk, Ohio

*O God, your mercies are never ending.


You see me when I am in hiding.  You see me when no one else around me even notices that I am there. You see me when I am invisible, camouflaged, fading into the background.  
Nothing escapes your notice.  Nothing eludes your perceptive gaze.


*O God, your mercies are never ending.


You attend to me, O God, in the darkest valleys.  You lead me to the river of life.  You quench my thirst for what satisfies.  You fill me to overflowing when emptiness is what I have known.


*O God, your mercies are never ending.


You, O God, show me the glories of your creative hand.  You illumine the navy sky with diamonds so I may have light.  You provide the path that leads me straight to your tender heart. You receive me there with open arms and envelope me in your love.


*O God, your mercies are never ending.  Amen.


Give it a try!  See what happens.  Have a blessed day!

God Meets Us Right Where We Are

For my doctoral paper I worked with the family system of Jacob and Esau, those famous biblical twins who began their life vying for approval and superiority over one another.  In the womb Jacob wrestled with his twin, so much so that their mother feared for her life.  Just before the two meet later in life, after betrayal, lost blessings and much anger, Jacob wrestles with God at the Jabbok River. Jacob, by his very nature is a wrestler.  Some people just are. . . they like to wrangle, roll around, get twisted up and sweaty.  God took Jacob to the mat but in the end he blessed him with a new name, Israel. He met Jacob right where he was; God didn't expect Jacob to be anyone other than who he knew himself to be.  God worked with his frailties and failings and made him a great nation as was promised to his grandfather Abraham.

The Greenway Trail Along the Genesee River, New York

I have been a runner since I was a small child.  I remember racing through the neighborhood with the boys because the girls couldn't keep up with me.  In grade school it was also the boys who were my competition, and only a couple of them at that.  Running was my life from very early on.  In High School I was the one who gathered the team and and put the group through our workouts.  In college I continued to run, not just around the green rubberized oval but from all things that sought to drown me: emotions, pain, brokenness.  I was a great runner- successful on the track, successful at running away from God.  At the age of 43 I have slowed down considerably, thanks to a slowly aging body, but in my heart I am still a runner.  Sometimes I still run from God.  Sometimes I still run from my emotions.

On retreat last week I realized the connection between Jacob, the wrestler, and me, the runner.  God has consistently and faithfully met both of us right where we are.  God is quite an athlete you know!  He probably even plays soccer, basketball and field hockey!  Anyway, here is something I wrote last week that I'd like to share with you, for whatever it's worth. . .

Jacob wrestled.
In the womb,
with his twin,
life or death struggle.


God wrestled
with the wrestler,
let me go,
no- I won't!
Let me go,
not before you bless me!
Let me go,
You are Israel.


I run.
From pain, from the past
from darkness and death.
You, O God,
strap on your running shoes
life or death race
tie them tight
stretched and ready
You will not let me
outrun your love
You chase, pursue,
match strides in mercy
On your mark,
get set,
Here I am for you- ALWAYS!