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Beauty

Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight. (I Peter 3:3-4) Technically, these verses concern wives, but young, unmarried women may grow up to be wives, and older widows provide examples for younger women to model. In addition, there are men who are into outward adornment, elaborate hairstyles, and fine clothes. Somehow, I doubt Paul would tell younger, older, or male clotheshorses to ramp it up while wives to rein it in. I also doubt that the teaching that applies to clothing would...

Rejoice!

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:4-7) This is one of those passages that we seem to like to share with other people, but we’re not so fond of having others mention to us. Sometimes, it seems as if others use it to browbeat us, and sometimes, they seem to do it so that they can’t be called upon to step in to comfort, encourage, or otherwise help us. In a sense, those who reprimand us to rejoice, not be anxious, ask God, and be thankful are right. We can make decisions and take acti...

Where Does My Help Come From?

I lift up my eyes to the mountains— where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. (Psalm 121:1-2) Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done . (Matthew 21:21) This isn’t meant to be a “nice” passage for me today. It’s more of a battle passage. It’s a “kill that gerbil and put a lion in its place” passage. Yesterday, I wrote about a tendency to fixate on the future. Sometimes, there’s something coming in the future that will change our lives. Sometimes, it’s that the future is just more of the same difficulty. And as a gerbil wheel person, it’s easy to spend a lot of time fussing. It’s like looking up into the mountains and wondering h...

Old Age

Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you. (Isaiah 46:4) When you’re young, you think that when you get old, you’ll “get to” relax a little, sit back, enjoy the good life after decades of hard labor. Of course, those of us who are over 50 figure out that it’s not true. We don’t “get to” do less than others. At least some of us have no choice. And it’s not that we get to take things easier, because everything we do is harder. Friends and family die, are too busy, or can’t be bothered to help; our body parts and finances behave similarly. Oh, there are some great things about being older. I’m happier now than I was for most of my life, and there are challenges in every age group, but for at least some older folks, or for most older ...

Teaching

Do not rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him as if he were your father. Treat younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity. (I Timothy 5:1-2) It’s been said that we live in a therapeutic world, but we also live in a culture that focuses greatly on education. Our goals are to make people healthy and intelligent, according to our definition of those terms. Generally, that means that they will think like we do (whoever “we” are). And lots of those who consider themselves elite enough to treat and educate others seem to have some particular ideas about what healing and teaching others is supposed to look like. Oddly, it’s not the way they would want to be treated by their therapist or taught by any parent or teacher out there, but they somehow think tha...

Level Paths

Teach me to do your will, for you are my God; may your good Spirit lead me on level ground . (Psalm 143:10) A level path doesn’t go up and down, lean from side to side, or have lots of ruts or rocks. So, no mountain tops, no deep valleys. Easygoing but probably boring and generally not a description of reality. Life is full of ups and downs, twists and turns, off-balance moments, and ruts and rocks that seem to appear from nowhere just as you put your foot down. God can make our path perfectly flat and boring, but He usually doesn’t, and as a result, people sometimes get angry at a God who seems to have lied to them. The reality is that God makes no promise to guarantee level ground. That’s the plea of the psalmist. Once again, David’s enemies were making his life mis...