Category Archives: Obedience

Homebodies

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Some people are energized by the thought of traveling the globe, loving adventure, change, unusual food, and new friends. Then there’s the rest of us.

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A homebody through and through, I find traveling stressful, but add an infant, and the challenge looms large. Although Emerald is a model baby, she, too, has her limits, and boarding a plane at 7:00 pm last night was a plan to which she objected.

As she screamed full-tilt midway through our flight from Orlando to Chiccago, we apologized to nearby passengers, but 4 month old babies don’t “get” bribery, and delayed gratification doesn’t exist. She tested our limits before finally falling into an exhausted, twitchy sleep. By that time we were twitchy, too. Birgitta said, “Was that 4 minutes or 14? It seemed like an eternity.”

Agreed.

Getting revved up

Little babies love “bland.” They do best following a simple, repeated routine at home with the same sights, smells, people, and procedures each day. I can relate. But for babies and adults alike, if we want to spend time with the people we love and arrive at the destinations where they are, traveling is a must.

Something similar happens in the spiritual realm. From birth to death, all of us are travelers, like it or not. Each day pushes (or drags) us forward, which includes squaring off with new experiences on a steady basis. We can go with hissy-fits as Emerald did last night, or we can move with a sense of excitement for one reason: it’s God who has set the itinerary.

Even knowing that, though, for some of us it’s still difficult. Stops along the way can be scary or painful, and it’s easier to snuggle into the familiar, which doesn’t involve taking chances or flirting with failure. But the pivot-point of signing on to follow God is that he’s God, the best of all travel guides.

To blindly follow anyone else would be foolish, but because the person asking us to trust his sense of direction and choice of destination is the All-knowing One, we can travel with him despite not having a complete understanding of where we’re going or what will happen when we get there.

Emerald’s screaming didn’t get her off last night’s flight, but today she’s been her usual agreeable self and is, I believe, aware of being back home in familiar surroundings.

It encourages me to know God has plans for all of us to stop traveling one day and become homebodies, living together with him in the place he’s currently making ready for us. Just as Birgitta and I knew that Emerald’s destination last night was the home she loves, God sees our future home and is sure we’ll love that one, too.

So, despite the uncertainties of his itinerary, I do want to travel this life partnered with God, And I’m going to make a real effort not to have too many hissy-fits along the way.

“The Lord keeps watch over you as you come and go, both now and forever.” (Psalm 121:8)

Between the Lines

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Historically the headliners in genealogies have been men rather than women, but as is true with the numbers of all genealogies, we can read between the lines.

While still studying my father’s ancestry, several memorable bits of information have come to light. My great-grandmother, Anna Stina Johansdotter, lived an interesting and full life, though she certainly had her share of woe. Born in 1827, she willingly married a man 8 years her senior who was already a widower with two children under 5 years old. He needed a new wife, and Anna Stina committed to him, eventually giving him 6 more children.

According to genealogy birth and death dates, though, her first daughter died one month before her first birthday, and her fifth child, a son, died shortly after delivery. Such heartbreak surely drove her to the Lord for sustenance and encouragement, but do we know for sure?

Of her 4 remaining biological children, 3 left Sweden for America in their late teens/early 20’s, knowing they’d probably never return. Surely this, too, was difficult for Anna Stina. But God blessed her with 8 grandchildren through her step-daughter alone, all of whom remained close-by.

Death notice, Anna Stina

Her husband, Johannes Andersson, died after just 24 years of marriage, leaving Anna Stina a widow for 31 years. We get a glimpse into the heart of this strong woman, though, by reading her death notice, translated from Swedish:

…that our dearly loved mother, Anna Stina Johansdotter in Hol Berget, after patiently bearing suffering, peacefully went to sleep with her faith in her Savior, Nov. 13, 1913, at an age of 86 years, 1 month and 24 days, deeply mourned and missed by children, grandchildren and many other relatives and friends. It is our sad duty to make this known.    

In the words of her obituary we see how she was able to cope: it was her Savior. Her personal Savior. His name was Jesus Christ, and she trusted him in life, in death(s), in disappointment, and through her own final illness.

Carl Johansson and bride, 1898

And so the journey through my father’s father’s father’s father’s side of our family ends, though much more could be told. To see God’s maneuvering of events and relationships in order to walk alongside them was deeply satisfying. And it’s something he eagerly does for anyone willing to let him be involved.

Linking up with the Father, Son, and Spirit didn’t guarantee my ancestors worldly prosperity or protection from hardship, but it did promise both prosperity and protection in the living they would do after dying.

Today all of them have taken delivery of those things. No more babies dying. No more children leaving without returning. No more youthful widowhood, no hardscrabble lives. Because they lived with the Savior back then, now they’ll live with him forevermore.

“If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.” (Romans 14:8)

Generational Faith

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Since the Garden of Eden, God’s heart has been filled with love for humankind, unshakeable, unmatched, supernatural love. He loves as if we are worthy of it, despite knowing full well the details of why we’re not. But through the generations his love hasn’t wavered. He’s given us his very best by offering his own Spirit to us, not just to live with us but to live within us.

This is a love-gift beyond measuring or, for that matter, beyond understanding.

Records.

In studying my family history, I’ve seen this practical gift lived out in the lives of one Spirit-filled generation praying for another, someone somewhere being sure God was listening and would answer.

As my father, Carl Johnson, grew up, his father Carl Johansson, was praying for him (yesterday’s blog). Reading further, I saw evidence that Carl Johansson’s father, Johannes Andersson, had prayed for his son, too. The notes attached to his genealogy say, “He trusted God and bent his knees praying to Him every day.”

Johannes’ son remembered listening to his father sing hymns and read psalms aloud, as well as watching him study a calendar with biblical passages ascribed to every day of the year. Toward the end of his life Johannes helped plan an evangelistic outreach in Sweden called Mission-house but was able to attend only one meeting before “he left his life on earth” at the age of 62.

This man had two children by his first wife, who died shortly after giving birth to their second child. With his second wife he had six more, and these children testified that as their father aged, he told them, “Take care of your house, because you will have to die.” Of course he was referring to the house of personhood, that they ought to live uprightly, because one day they’d have to give an account of themselves to God.

Johannes Andersson was living for the Lord even after he’d encountered intense sorrow in losing his young wife to death and later two of his other children as well. His faithful servanthood was evident to the end, however. After entering into his final illness, he had been attending a prayer meeting one night when he didn’t come home on schedule. His family was worried, knowing he was close to death, until he finally walked in after midnight.

Instead of going directly home, he’d walked to a relative’s home to work at reconciling two extended family members who hadn’t been getting along. Apparently he succeeded, because the genealogy notes mention the two women taking his advice and calling it “good.”

One week later, his son said, “My father’s life ended in peace,” and we know why. He’d embraced Christ as Savior while still a youngster, and why was that? Because one more generation back, someone had been praying for him in the power of God’s Spirit… just as someone has lovingly prayed for you and me.

“Know that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations.” (Deuteronomy 7:9)