The Webinar

Posted on October 20, 2013 by Margaret

Once in a while each of us faces a task with apprehension. For me, it was the webinar I was asked to participate in on October 9. (Growing Pains)

Having no reference point for this newfangled communication tool, I was nervous about how that day would go and wasn’t sure how to prepare. The plan was for 3 of us to have a one hour discussion about grief: Tim, the moderator, Dave, who’d lost his daughter in an accident, and me, having lost my husband. We’d also be answering questions that came in live, online.

I was reluctant to say yes but sensed God wanted me to, so I did.

A few days beforehand, our moderator set up a video conference call on Google+: Tim, Dave, Dennis (the control room guy), and me. Getting set up for this cyber-meeting was a challenge I couldn’t meet. Despite help from webinar techs over the phone, I failed at my end, the only participant not visually present.

Instead I put them on speaker-phone, and Tim did the same, allowing me to be present…. sort-of. We spent an hour getting acquainted, troubleshooting, and following Tim’s Power Point outline as best we could from different locations. When we finished, Tim gave us instructions on clothing that would please the cameras: “no black, no white, no red, no stripes, no checks, no colors lighter than your skin tone.”

I’d already spent the better part of 3 days shopping and had bought several outfits, planning to return the ones I didn’t wear. One ensemble was black, another white, another red, and the last checked, all on the no-no list. In the end, they approved a blue silk vest and white shirt. I appreciated their cheerful tolerance of my clothing violation.

Now that the webinar is history, I look back and see how focused I was on doing well for all the wrong reasons. Worrying about my wardrobe or clearing my throat during filming or spilling my water at the table had loomed larger than the over-arching purpose of the project, which was to encourage people journeying through grief.

Such self-focus could have sabotaged my part, and I’m thankful for God using multiple prayer times that day to tug me back to center when I was leaning sideways. After all, the webinar opportunity came from my book, which came from my blog, which came from God. All three belong to him, and if they accomplish anything good at all, it’s only because he’s behind it.

(webinar, audio only)

To think the failure or success of that webinar depended in any way on my effort was to own something that never belonged to me. And there’s a beautiful flip side to knowing all the results belong to God:

Whatever he does prospers.

“If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 4:11)

Greeting Card Guidance

Posted on October 7, 2013 by Margaret

God is an undisputed pro at surprises. This morning during my prayer time, I spent 20 minutes going round and round with him about a problem I’m having. I needed his solution, and as I prayed, I listened for his answers to my questions. As Henry Blackaby says, as soon as we pray out a request, we should pay close attention to what happens next. Those circumstances may contain God’s answers.

As I left that topic and began praying for others, the edge of my mind continued to listen for the Lord. I had asked, “What should I think? What should I do?” And I knew he’d let me know.

Half an hour later, still praying, I jotted down several “solutions” that had come to mind, figuring they were probably from God. Most involved two things: (1) how I could justify my own position, and (2) how I could superimpose that over another person’s opinion.

Toward the end of my prayer time, I usually close my eyes and pull a “random” (i.e. Spirit-selected) greeting card from a box I keep under my bed, so I can pray for the person who sent it. Right now the box contains Christmas cards from 2011, but the dates don’t really matter, just the people.

As I opened today’s card, the signature made me smile. It was from one of Mom’s good friends, Stella Eklund, and in the time since Stella had sent her card, she’d left Chicago and gone to heaven. I smiled because I knew how eagerly she had looked forward to that relocation day.

So I didn’t pray for Stella today. She’s leading a life of complete fulfillment and exuberant joy with a decided absence of prayer requests. Besides, if she has anything to say to the Lord, she can talk to him directly.

But that didn’t mean God wasn’t planning to use Stella’s card in another way. While I was still holding it, I thought about her sparkling optimism and her quick sense of humor. But most of all I thought about how Stella radiated grace toward others. Without a trace of judgment in her twinkling eyes or her tone of voice, she always looked for the good in people and focused every conversation on them rather than herself.

Right then I realized God was answering my earlier questions, and he did it very creatively with a Stella-prompt:

“Handle it like she would have,” he said. “Give grace. More than you have been. And for goodness sake, get your eyes off yourself.”

Through seeing this lovely lady’s signature, which caused me to remember what she was like, God answered my prayers. He showed me how I’d been part of the problem rather than The Great Problem Solver I’d envisioned myself to be. I understood, and accepted his loving (and well-deserved) reprimand.

And then I threw away my self-centered list of “solutions”.

“In the end, serious reprimand is appreciated far more than bootlicking flattery.” (Proverbs 28:23 The Message)

Forever?

Posted on October 2, 2013 by Margaret

My local post office is small and utterly charming, cute enough to be on a post card. Actually, I think it has been, having stood in the center of our tiny town for quite a few decades. The ladies who run it are charming too, always welcoming and always amiable.

Six years ago the United States Post Office issued the first “Forever Stamps.” They had a picture of the Liberty Bell on them and cost 41c apiece, which was the going rate for a first class letter then. The idea behind a Forever Stamp was that it wouldn’t matter when you’d use it; it would always be “good to go.”

I still have a few of those original Liberty Bell stamps in the zipper pocket of my wallet, the ones I paid 41c for. If I stuck one on a letter today, it would be worth 46c, the amount required for first class mail. That was the whole idea. Invest in Forever Stamps and watch their value escalate. Although it’s only pennies, we Americans like that kind of thing.

Of course these stamps aren’t literally good forever.

If something has the ability to last forever, that means it’ll have no end but will go on eternally, and there are precious few things on that list:

God the Father, Son, and Spirit
Human souls
Spirit beings, as created by God
Emotions (love, joy, peace, etc.)
God’s Word
The New Heaven and New Earth

Stamps aren’t on the list, and it’s good for us to recognize how many of life’s other “essentials” aren’t there either. Of course we have a practical need for stamps and lots of other things, but the trick is in prioritizing them all. Which items occupy the top few slots?

For those of us who care about eternity, the top slots ought to closely resemble the list above, and not just in a “don’t-I-wish!” category. Our priorities should be looking back at us from our day-timers, our check books, and our conversations. If not, we ought to ask, “Why not?”

The majority of our world would say, “Why bother with all that spiritual stuff?” But that negates the unnumbered benefits of living a life submitted to God. And though I’m far from doing a good job of that, it’s worth a great deal to keep trying for even one glimpse of the Lord’s work in my life or in someone close to me.

By the way, recently our post-mistress told me that all the stamps sold at post offices these days are Forever Stamps. I love that and sometimes buy hundreds at a time, hoping they’ll last past the next rate rise.