Uplift Life

Those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.
Isaiah 40:31 

I’m tired.
So darn tired.

Anyone else?
I’m tired of the fighting.
I’m tired of watching people I love get sicker.
I’m tired of seeing hurting people struggle.
It takes a toll – all the sickness and anger and negativity around us.
And hope can feel a little forced, or even completely out of reach.  

It’s at these times,
when life feels like one marathon after another,
when my legs and heart and spirit are so tired,
This is when I turn to Isaiah 40.
I first heard this section of Isaiah in college.
I grew up Catholic, as some of you know, and we didn’t always feel like we had permission to just dig into the Bible and learn scripture.  
So when these verses came to me they felt like a quiet gift.
Like Isaiah was imparting some great wisdom to my tired and cynical 20 year old soul.
And like many quiet gifts, they came to me in song first, and then I went digging into scripture to get more.
This verse, when read out loud or on the page, is always set to music in my mind.
(This music. Always. And it’s just lovely.)

Isaiah was writing to the Israelites who were exiled.
They thought had been abandoned by their God.
They were exhausted, and losing hope.
Even the youngest, least cynical among them had gotten weary.
And Isaiah steps in with a little word of hope.

Have you not known? He says.
It’ll come.
When we wait, and allow God to come and do her thing –
Our strength is renewed.  
Not just a little bit, but like we’ve got wings like eagles.
Like we could run and run and run and not get weary.
Wouldn’t that be awesome?
To keep fighting and working
in the world or just to get through the day
and not get tired?

The prophet Isaiah reminds us earlier just who God is.
(Caveat – I don’t always advocate for Eugene Peterson’s Message paraphrase, so read the real Isaiah 40:28-31 too, but his version here is lovely):
Haven’t you been listening?
God doesn’t come and go. God lasts.
  He’s Creator of all you can see or imagine.
He doesn’t get tired out, doesn’t pause to catch his breath.
   And he knows everything, inside and out.
He energizes those who get tired…

Oh man. Oh MAN.
I couldn’t love this more.
You know me, I love some sass, and Isaiah brings it – um haven’t you been listening?
You guys.
Haven’t you heard?
This God, OUR GOD, lasts.

God doesn’t come and go – God lasts.
God doesn’t get tired of fighting for you, with you and in the world around you.
God doesn’t even have to pause to take a breath.
Continuous and constant presence and action in the world.
That is our God.
And when you remember this – then you rise up.
You know how that word, “wait” in verse 31 “Those who wait for the Lord” can also be translated?
Look for. Expect. Hope.
Those who look for the Lord.
Those who expect the Lord.
Those who hope in the Lord.
They will what?
Renew their strength.
Those who look for God, and hope for God and expect God to be there will rise up stronger than ever before.  
And boy do we need some of that rising.
Look.
Hope.
Expect God to be there.
Because she is.
I promise.

PS. Hit play on that link above, turn it all the way to 11, and close your eyes. You won’t regret it.

If I speak in the tongues of mortals and angels, but do not have love, I am just a noisy gong or clanging cymbal. 
1 Corinthians 13:1

Oh you guys.
I have been thinking about what to write this week for awhile.
And in fact, because I’m a plan-ahead kind of gal, I often choose and even write these ahead of Friday.
But I couldn’t this week.
Not because a certain candidate won or lost, but because of what is happening all around us as a result.
This now goes bigger than politics.
So I’m going to take the time today to remind us all what is important.
We have a new president.
It’s done.
If you voted for him or not is irrelevant at this point.
What isn’t irrelevant is how we are reacting.
Both those who voted for and against him.
It’s not love.
You guys.
We are better than this.
We are UPLIFTERS.
You are my people.
We are committed to being something else in the world.
Committed to being lovers in a world of haters.

When a student goes to school and sees hateful language written on their locker, that is not love.
When someone is beat up or harassed or called racist for exercising their right to vote their own conscience, that is not love.
When people cheer as someone is hurt or shamed or demonized, that is not love.
When someone is beaten and left to die because of the color of their skin or because of who they love, that is not love.
No matter who you voted for on Tuesday, I hope you’ll agree that none of those are ok.
None of this is love.

You know what love is?
Love is patient. Love is kind.
Love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude.
It does not insist on it’s own way.
It is not irritable or resentful.
It does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in truth.

Look at that list.
Look at it.
Don’t just quickly scan it and remember how nice it is when you heard it at so and so’s wedding.
See I know these verses are so often chosen to be a part of weddings because they are lovely words of what it means to love each other.
But today – we need the reminder that this is how God loves us.
And this is how we are called to love each other.
Patiently.
Kindly.
Without rudeness or resentfulness.

And I am not saying this from a place of having it all figured out.
I don’t.
I’ll confess right now to doing these same things:
To making blanket assumptions about people who voted differently than me.
To putting up a wall with those who I think are wrong.
To insisting I’m right.
I’m guilty. But I’m not alone.
Right now I’m hearing a lot of clanging cymbals and banging gongs.
There’s a lot of eloquent speaking and intelligent words being spoken without love.
A lot.
A lot a lot.
Yelling how wrong you think someone is does not change the world.
Never has, never will.
Shaming someone for their opinions or beliefs doesn’t work either.
You know what does? Love.
Love in action. Out in the real world, face to face with people who aren’t just like you.
Not posting on facebook.
Love, as I’ve said before, is a verb.
Not a noun.
It’s not a thing you have but it something you do.

And how God loves is always and forever going out into the world and finding the ones who are hurting and excluded and forgotten and hated and gathering them in and loving them.
This is what we are called to do too.
We are called, as people who believe in a God who loves us no matter what, to extend that same grace and love to everyone else. Everyone who is not us.
Because if grace is for me, someone unworthy who keeps messing it up, then it has to be for everyone else unworthy who keeps messing it up.
This is how it works.
So stop posting.
Stop yelling.
Stop telling people why you’re right and they are wrong.
Love out loud.
Find someone different than you and love them.
Find someone who is scared and stand with them.
This is beyond politics.
Go out and love.
Because it is love that is powerful.
It is love that bears all things,
believes all things,
hopes all things,
endures all things.

Only love.

Behold I am with you to the end of the age
Matthew 28:20 

Just when things had seemed to get better for the disciples, Jesus told them he was leaving again.
What?
They just got him back and now he’s going again?
What the heck Jesus?

They were understandably anxious.
How do we do this thing without you Jesus?
How are we supposed to make it without you here?
And Jesus responds with this verse from Matthew 28: I am with you until the end of the age.
That phrase is clunky in this time, but the Greek word that is used in Matthew’s Gospel is aion.
It means forever, eternity, and my personal favorite: perpetuity of time.
Even though things might be changing, Jesus says, I’m still with you.

This is how Matthew’s Gospel ends.
Really.
The whole thing ends with this promise.
Last words matter because they are what we remember most.
And Matthew wants the last thing you hear to be pure promise.
It’s important that this is the thing that sticks… because things get rough.
On man do things get rough.
And when we’re in dark days, when Jesus feels like he’s far away then the thing we remember first is what Jesus said last – I am with you until forever.
You’re not alone.
No matter what.
We sang a song last Sunday in worship and this verse brought it back to my mind.  
I’ve posted the lyrics below, but also take a listen.  
It’s this same promise in song form – so hear it today.  
Let it be the thing that sticks.  

Robbie Seay – Stay

Hope, is the call, that is ringing in my soul
But I can’t pretend that I see much light in front of me

I wait to find you here
Hope is thrown away, I can’t give up
I’ll wait to see you here, I have gone astray
But you will always stay beside me
And your rescue comes to find me
And you always stay

Love, is the seed that is buried
Underneath the soil of pain and grief
But it grows into the tree
That I’ll climb to see you here

Hope is thrown away, I can’t give up
I’ll wait to see you here, I have gone astray
But you will always stay beside me
And your path is straight before me
You will always stay
and you will always stay

Pride is the friend
who betrays me in the end
Stealing joy, as it goes, leaves me longing for a home

I’ll wait to find you here
Though I’m lost and afraid
I can’t give up
I’ll wait to find you here, I have gone astray
And I believe
I’ll sing until you’re here
Though I’m lost and afraid
I can’t give up
I’ll wait to find you here, I have gone astray
And you will always stay beside me
And your sun will rise above us
And your light will shine upon us
And your skies are clear above me
And you will always stay
You will always stay

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
Hebrews 13:8

The only thing constant in this world is change.
Have you heard this before?
It’s a quote attributed to the ancient Greek Philosopher named Heraclitus.  

And it feels really, really true.
Nothing stays the same.
We’re in the midst of the transition of seasons here in Minnesota and each day there are trees with less leaves, there are some with more color than the day before, and there are some still hanging onto their green.
The sun is always moving from east to west.
Projects begin and finish.
Days we long for come and go.
Children keep growing and reaching new milestones.
Illness continues to take it’s toll.
People we love die.
Through all of it – life goes on.
When we feel like it shouldn’t be possible for life to go on when it’s so different than yesterday, it still does.
Even when life isn’t filled with huge changes, when it feels kind of routine, we look back and it’s all different.

The only constant in this world is change.
So this verse has a different kind of power.
A different kind of hope.
Because no matter how much things change.
No matter what things happen that make today feel like light years away from yesterday,
Jesus never changes.

Jesus is the one constant in this world.
How we know him changes.
How we understand him changes.
How we experience him changes.
But Jesus does not change.
Who Jesus is never changes.

“Jesus is the same yesterday and today and forever”

To me, this provides great comfort, especially in the midst of change.
Unwanted change or change I have sought.  
It is all difficult.  
It is all disorienting.
But all the things I have known to be true about Jesus in my life don’t go away when the rest of my life is in transition.

So I can remind myself about those things with the promise in this verse:
Jesus seeks me the same yesterday and today and forever
Jesus leads me the same yesterday and today and forever
Jesus weeps with me the same yesterday and today and forever
Jesus cares what happens to me the same yesterday and today and forever
Jesus is with me the same yesterday and today and forever
Jesus frees me the same yesterday and today and forever
Jesus forgives me the same yesterday and today and forever
Jesus renews me the same yesterday and today and forever
Jesus loves me the same yesterday and today and forever

The only constant in this world might be change, but we have an unchanging God.

And for that we give thanks.

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain.
1 Corinthians 15:10

The Apostle Paul says this lovely phrase – I am what I am – in the middle of his first letter to the church in Corinth.
And he says it right after reminding them he is the least likely one to be standing up and leading a church.
He wasn’t the greatest guy.
He was kind of jerk actually.
And yet by the grace of God here he is, leading and living and speaking for God in the world.
He said that he had done all this stuff that he wasn’t proud of, and still God loved him and saved him and chose him.
By the grace of God I am who I am.

I think the same can be true for us.
No matter what – here we are.
We are who we are.
And no matter what we think about ourselves or how worthy we think we are, we are still receivers of the grace of God.

I want you to think about where you are today.
In your life I mean.
Are you happy?
Sad?
Angry?
Frustrated?
Stuck?
Anxious?
All of those things in the last ten minutes?

You have not been beaten.
Those emotions, the things in your life that are beating you down, they have not and will not win.
Let me tell you, I KNOW that it doesn’t always feel that way.
Today, maybe your fear has won.
Today, maybe you feel like the illness is getting a leg up.
But it will not win.

I want you to find a mirror, right now (I’ll wait)…
Look in it, and repeat: By the grace of God, here I am.
Say it again.
By the grace of God, here I am.

This is what Paul’s words mean.
By God’s grace we are who we are.
And who we are is children of God.
Loved.
Held.
Alive.

Paul’s last words in this verse are about God’s action on our behalf not being in vain.
God’s grace is never wasted.
God’s love is never misdirected.
No matter what.

We may not be who we want to be yet.
We may not be running at full capacity.
We may feel unworthy.
But that has no bearing on God’s grace for you.
It’s there. Already given.
You are still here.
Alive.

As I read this verse today, the song “Alive” kept on coming to my mind.
The lyrics are so perfectly matched to this idea that by the grace of God we’re still here.
No matter what is going wrong in our lives, in our country, in our world, we’re here.
She sings: I had a one-way ticket to a place
Where all the demons go
Where the wind don’t change
And nothing in the ground can ever grow
No hope, just lies
And you’re taught to cry in your pillow
But I survived
I’m still breathing, I’m still breathing.
I’m alive.

Have you felt like this?
Yeah. It’s not an easy place to be, at the bottom.
But God is there.
With you.
He knows and understands what it looks like to be in the worst of life.
And despite how bad things can get, you are here.
You survived this moment. This day. This week.
By the grace of God – you’re still breathing.

By the grace of God – here I am. (say it)
(again)
By the grace of God – here I am.

You’re alive my friends.
We’re alive.
By the grace of God – here we are.
(want to listen to this song? Click here)

There is surely a future hope for you, and your hope will not be cut off.
Proverbs 23:18

Hope.
I’ve talked about it many times in this space.
But I need to keep talking about it.
Because as much as I wish it were so, it’s not a constant state for me.
It’s something I need to remind myself of on an almost daily basis.
Each time I sit with a family who has lost a loved one,
Each time another person calls me to say “they found another spot in my last test”
Each time someone says I’m not sure how much time I have left.
Each time I look at the news, or jump on social media.
I think: it can’t get worse than this.
I think: THIS, this is rock bottom. This is as bad as it gets.
Right?
And then I have to remind myself that no matter how bad it gets,
no matter how dark things seem, there is always hope.
Hope.
The expectation of good.
Expecting good.
Hope is an exercise for me.
I have to work at it, daily.
So that I don’t get dragged down by the things that chip away at my expectations of good.
And it’s HARD. So hard.

So one of the ways I try to practice hope is by finding places in Scripture that talk about it.
A lot of them have made their way into weekly uplifts.
And though I’ve talked about the Greek word for hope a lot (elpis), today’s text is in Hebrew.
And the word for hope in Hebrew is a little different.
It’s tiqvah. תִּקְוָה
It can be translated as expected thing, outcome, and also cord.
Yeah.
A cord.
A connection between two things.
And in this short verse in Proverbs – hope is used in two different ways.
The first time, it’s the expectation of good.
God promises that there is surely a future hope for you.
That things will get better.
And that’s a great promise all on it’s own.
But the second, that’s the one that is just getting me today.
The second “hope” is the cord.
The cord will not be cut.
The cord will not fail.
Oh you guys.
This is like a glimmer of sunshine breaking through the clouds for me right now.
Yes, there’s good to come, yes, you can place your hope in the reality that things WILL get better.
But even more than that – no matter what happens, the cord connecting you and the God who loves you with unfailing love will not and cannot be broken.
It can’t be cut.
It won’t fail you.
Even when everything else in your life seems to have failed or let you down.
When your health, the doctors, the people who are supposed to love you most – when they fail, God will not.
You are connected to God.
And that connection doesn’t let you down.
It simply cannot fail.
So today, hold onto that.
Sometimes that’s all we can do.
Hold onto the truth that God’s holding on to us.

Cast all your anxiety on the Lord, because he cares for you.
1 Peter 5:7

Have you ever experienced anxiety?
That inability to take a step forward because you don’t know what is ahead?
The non-stop inner monologue that wakes you in the middle of the night and won’t let you fall back to sleep?
The tension and fear that just won’t let you go?
Sometimes, when we’re in a season of grief or illness or newness, our anxiety can just take over.
It’s paralyzing.
It can seem insurmountable.
All it does is bring up more of the same.
Anxiety begets anxiety.
Worry begets worry.
Questions beget more questions.
What do I do next?
How am I supposed to get through this?
Why is this happening?

And in the midst of this – it is easy to do one of two things:

1. Put on happy face. Fake it until you make it. Pretend you’re ok when you’re not ok.
2. Make a nest in your bed and never leave.

I personally like to rotate between these two depending on how much crap I have to get done.
But that doesn’t mean I’m ok.
Been there?
There now?
You are not alone.

(Before I go on, I want to be clear that for some people, anxiety is more than daily worries or fears. It’s real, big, and sometimes requires medical treatment. I don’t want to minimize this kind of anxiety at all, so know that if you are struggling with significant anxiety, you can get professional help and you can get better)

This verse from 1 Peter popped out to me today, and I was caught by one word: cast.
The Greek word used here means to toss or throw.
And for you other Uplift nerds out there, the only other place in the whole Bible that this word is used is when Jesus is riding a donkey through Jerusalem and people are throwing their coats down onto the ground in front of him on the road.
That’s what we’re supposed to do with our anxiety.
I love the image of throwing my cares, my worries, my anxiety directly into the path of God.
God can take it.
And the reason we should throw our crap onto God is because God cares.
God cares about you. God concerns himself with you because you are Gods.

Oh gosh I just want to read this over and over again.
God is looking at you right now and saying: Oh Child of God – Bring. It. On.
I can take it.
Whatever is keeping you up at night. I can take it.
Whatever is occupying your mind. I’ve got it.
Whatever causes you to want to hide in your room all day. Hand it over.
It might feel really big,
But God is bigger.
And God has you covered.
So pick up your worries and cares and things holding you back and throw them at God.
Go ahead.
God can take it.
God’s got you.

How long, O Lord?  Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I bear pain in my soul, and have sorrow in my heart all day long?
Psalm 13:1-2

It’s been a hard week.
Really hard.
So when I sat down to write this uplift I wasn’t too surprised when the verse that popped into my head was the first verse of Psalm 13.  
“How long O Lord?”
I’ve been asking this question a lot.
How long?
How much more are we supposed to take?
In the news.
In politics.
On the streets.
In our own communities and homes.
Everything just feels so messed up.
So broken.
How long until we get put back together?
I even looked up the Hebrew for “how long” and it’s עַד אָן
Ad-an.
How long.
It literally means how much longer.
Up until what point?
And as I’m reading I’m practically yelling YES.
How much more?
Until what point are we supposed to be dealing with this brokenness and bad news and sadness and illness and grief?
How long, O Lord?

It’s easy to sink into despair.
Really easy.
As I’ve been reading this psalm this week I feel like the writer really knew loss and grief and frustration.
This guy got it.
Yet the writer of this psalm doesn’t stay in despair.  
Yes, he goes there. As we all do.
And then Verse 5 begins with those three little letters that mean so much:  But.
But.

“But I trust in your steadfast love, my heart shall rejoice in your salvation”

But, he says, I’m trusting in God.
Even in the midst of all of this crap.
Even though I feel like the world is falling apart all around me.
I trust God.
Another way that word trust can be translated is hope.
I put my hope in God.
Because God is steadfast, unwavering, resolute.
And I know that this is not the end.
That darkness and sadness and brokenness will not win.
And for that my heart rejoices.
Even when it’s sad.
Even when things seem irreparable.
My heart has hope and can and does rejoice.
Boy do I need that reminder.
This week yes, but every week.
God is steadfast and will save us.
God redeems and renews and makes us whole again.

So here we are uplifters.
Standing together, trusting and hoping.

On Sunday morning, I heard author Parker Palmer read a poem by Victoria Safford, called, “The Gates of Hope” and it has been in my mind ever since. So here it is –  

Our mission is to plant ourselves at the gates of Hope—
Not the prudent gates of Optimism, Which are somewhat narrower.
Not the stalwart, boring gates of Common Sense;
Nor the strident gates of Self-Righteousness,
     Which creak on shrill and angry hinges
     (People cannot hear us there; they cannot pass through)
Nor the cheerful, flimsy garden gate of “Everything is gonna’ be alright.”
But a different, sometimes lonely place,
The place of truth-telling,
About your own soul first of all and its condition.
The place of resistance and defiance,
The piece of ground from which you see the world
Both as it is and as it could be
As it will be;
The place from which you glimpse not only struggle,
But the joy of the struggle.

And we stand there, beckoning and calling,
Telling people what we are seeing
Asking people what they see.

Today, even in the worst of times,
let us plant ourselves at the gates of hope, and do not fall to despair.  
God wins.
Love wins.

So we hope.

The thief comes only to kill and destroy.
I have come that they may have life, and have it abundantly.
John 10:10

I’ve been thinking about this verse a lot lately, and I’ve come to the conclusion that living an abundant life is a lot easier said than done.
We get up, get ready, go to work, come home, eat dinner, watch tv, go to bed.
Repeat.
Sound familiar?
Sure, sometimes we go out, or exercise, or switch it up somehow – but not that much.
Add to this pattern anything stressful or traumatic and we just want to curl up in a ball and never come out.  

Is any of this really abundant?
Is this really the kind of life Jesus wanted for us when he spoke these words?
And if it’s not, what does abundant life look like?

The Greek word used by this verse in John is περισσός – perissos. (pear-ee-so-s)
It means exceeding, more than necessary, over and above, beyond measure.
This is what life with Christ looks like.
More than.
Bigger.
Full.
Anything else, even the routine “day in day out” kind of life – that is the thief stealing from us the life God intended us to have.
So when fear and anxiety over the future start to take over – that’s the thief.
When hopelessness wells up from within and overwhelms you – that’s the thief.
Call it out.
When you feel those things – call them out for what they are – that’s the thief.
It’s not God.
God is not fear and anxiety.
God is not hopelessness.

God is peace and joy and gratitude:
     even in the face of the worst life has to offer.
even in the midst of the routine and ordinary

God is abundant life.

I’ve just finished reading “It’s Okay to Laugh” By Nora McInerny Purmort.  It’s a memoir about life before, during, and after her life as she knew it fell apart.

(Side note – It’s incredible, go read it now.)  

But amidst the vast amounts of awesomeness, a quote from Nora’s friend Mary stuck out like a beacon to me. Mary’s husband died of brain cancer and she was taking one day at a time, but never caving into the desire to just do enough get through the day, or even give up completely.  In one of their many conversations, Mary said to Nora:

“I believe we have a sacred responsibility to live fully in the face of our losses”

Yeah, we need to hear that again:  

I believe we have a sacred responsibility to live fully in the face of our losses.

Fully.
Perissos.

We are meant to do more than go through the motions of life, but to have life and live it over and above. It’s our sacred responsibility – we were created to have abundant life, not just life.
That’s the life we were given.
The life we were given by God.
A life filled with love and peace and joy and gratitude.
A life of abundance.
Even in the darkest moments.
Even in those moments where the thief is hard at work to steal the life we’ve been given.

We have been given new life by God. It is more. It exceeds anything else we can see or plan or even imagine.  

So get up.
Call out that thief.
And start now, living the life you’ve been given.
Go.
God goes with you.