Monthly Archives: March 2008

A New Canvas ~ For Jennisa


In the beginning God created…

The heavens and the earth.
The light.
The sky.
The dry ground and seas.
The plants and trees.
The sun. The moon. The stars.
All the living creatures.

Good things.

But his final creative act came with punctuation. Exclamation. Celebration.

You and me…in his likeness and bearing the marks of his image.

A very good ending to a very busy week.

As his image bearers, we, too, share his capacity for creativity. Our Father fashioned our flesh with a bent toward creative expression. All of us…every last one of us…are artists. We paint stories with…

Our words. Our writings. Our music. Our acting. Our dance. Our paintings. Our teaching. Our leadership. Our singing. Our speaking. Our conversations. Our silence.

No one escapes the need for expression, for within each one of us is the impulse of our creative God. He placed our lives upon this earth to put voice to a story…his story. And somewhere within the telling, he hopes that others will be compelled to add their own lines to the script.

I’ve been putting voice to my story for nearly forty-two years. Rare have been the silent moments. Expression has always come easy for me. Lavish and unbridled at times. Raw and unedited most days. Those who know me would tell you that my emotions have never failed to find their words.

Nearly two months ago, I discovered a new way to format my artistic bent. It is called blogging. I happened upon it quite by accident, but I rather like surprises…especially the ones that allow me to put voice to my thoughts. It has been a blessing to me, and my deepest desire is that this blog will be a blessing to others.

After surfing around to visit other blogs, I decided that mine could benefit from the creative impulses of another. She’s an artist in her own right. Her name is Jennisa, and she has created a new canvas upon which I will paint my words. The canvas came with work. With patience and with gentle kindness. Never once did Jennisa complain about my artistic pickiness. She simply listened, and then she crafted. What you see is the outgrowth of her tender creativity.

The elements of this canvas tell a story all their own. Over the next few weeks, I will be unpacking some of the elements that you see…letting you “in” on a little more of my story. But today, I ask you to sit back and consider Jennisa’s gift to me.

I cannot promise you as to the full extent of the stories that will eventually find their home upon this canvas. You won’t find a lot of humor here. There are tons of brilliant humorists in blog land. I’m not one of them. I am a funny person, but my writing finds its strength in contemplation.

What I can promise you is that I will always write from the heart. And this heart, my friends, is filled with Jesus. He will be painted onto this canvas. His story overrides mine and is the only one worthy of my fragile attempt at words. I won’t always do it perfectly, but I will always endeavor to do it well. Creatively and with my God-given bent toward artistry. Humbly, under the shadow of his illuminating light.

May you seek to do the same with whatever creative outlet that God has scripted into your gifting. He celebrates your story, and he applauds your effort at expression. How I pray that your canvas, alongside mine, will always boast the presence of our Lord.

Thank you, Jennisa, for your brilliance. You have painted well. A very good ending to a very busy week. May God continue to script your mind, your heart, and your hands for all things sacred. Be blessed and as always…

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PS: For those of you looking to jazz up your blog, please visit my new friend, Jennisa, at “Once Upon a Blog” — http://jennisajoy.blogspot.com/ . Her artistry is worth the wait!

a Cup that would not pass

“Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s servant, cutting off his right ear. (The servant’s name was Malchus.) Jesus commanded Peter, ‘Put your sword away! Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?'” (John 18:10-11).

We all have them. Allowed cups. Cups that come to us through the plans of man and through the hands of self. Cups that come to us through the will of God. Some are sweet. Some are bitter. Some make sense. Some extend beyond reason. Regardless of their taste, they become our portion of drink. God has allowed them to touch our lips, and sometimes the aftertaste lingers long and hard on the palate of our will.

Cups of joy and cups of suffering, coupled together within a life’s embrace.

Cups of …

Love. Acceptance. Purpose. Security. Contentment. Family. Prosperity.

Cups of …

Hatred. Rejection. Abuse. Disease. Solitude. Poverty. Death.

Cups of… _______________________________.

What is the cup that boasts your lips this day? Yours is not mine and mine could never purposefully fill yours. Still and yet, Christ allows them to find their presence at our tables. The choice to drink them is up to us.

Long before Christ knew the confines of his cross, he made a decision to embrace the cup of the cross. To drink of the suffering that his Father had assigned to him before the foundation of the world. This cup would not go down easy, but it would go down. Deep down. All the way down from his head to his feet until love’s redeeming work was done.

Jesus’ decision to drink the cup was based upon his knowledge of what stood to be lost by his rejection of it.

Us.

We stood on the other side of his hard surrender. We were the purpose behind his unparalleled obedience to partake of the cup that carried our salvation. A cup that would pass from our lips onto his because our lips are not capable of such sacrifice. Our blood bleeds temporal. Christ’s blood sheds eternal.

No wonder his stern rebuke of Peter’s misguided devotion and unbridled emotion.

Jesus commanded Peter, ‘Put your sword away! Shall I not drink from the cup the Father has given me?’”

A given cup…portioned out by a good God…to a Son who chose to do a gracious thing. A grace-filled suffering portion of sacred drink poured out for you and for me for the forgiveness of our many sins. A mysterious and wonderful gift that I cannot fathom, and yet one that I want to readily receive.

“Want to” I say, because so often I don’t. Like Peter, I am quick to draw my sword and voice my objection.

Not you, Lord. You will never die a criminal’s death. You will never wash my feet. Your feet and hands were meant for more than suffering nails and a servant’s basin. You will not wash me. You will not bleed for me. I will bleed for you. I am well armored, and I will fight to the finish. This is not how it will end. This cup will pass from you. I stand ready to make sure.

And as I chorus my plan, a rooster finds his tri-fold chorus, reminding me that God’s plan is better. Fully complete without fault or blemish. Nothing I could say or ultimately fail to do would keep Christ from his cross. It is what he came to do.

And so I put my sword back in its sheath and stand aside. I walk with him to the cross, and offer my own nails for his suffering. I stand alongside others and take my turn with the hammer. I position my body beneath the weight of his surrender, and I pause. … Waiting for my cleansing is a difficult obedience. It is a hard cup to swallow. But, slowly it comes. His blood. The shower of his redemption begins its flow over my frame, and I am engulfed by his love.

Perhaps, today, you are thinking about the cross–about Christ and his assigned cup. It is our season to remember. Time is well spent when time is spent thinking about him. We all approach Calvary with different cups pressed to our lips. Some of us are living in a season of suffering. Some of us with inexpressible joy. Some of us with both. Whatever your current cup, there is one cup you have been spared. Only Christ’s lips were worthy of its embrace. His surrender to it has been your salvation.

As we come to Good Friday, I ask you to take a few moments to ponder the question that Christ asked of Peter almost 2000 years ago.

“Child…daughter…son whom I love…shall I not drink from the cup the Father has given me?”

Linger in sacred contemplation as you position yourself beneath his cross. Your response determines your steps. And so I pray…

Yes, Lord…drink! Drink from your assigned cup. Let not my will nor my wants keep you from doing what you came to do. Calvary’s work is finished; yet so often I want to revisit the issue. I want to be the keeper of my salvation. I want the surrender to be mine and not yours. Thank you for showing me that mine would never be enough. Yours alone stands the test of grace. Humbly, I bow for the cleansing. Thank you for embracing the cup of the cross. May I never lose the wonder of your magnificent gift. Amen.

peace for the journey~elaine

Save Us…

“The next day the great crowd that had come for the Feast heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, ‘Hosanna!’ ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’ ‘Blessed is the King of Israel.’” (John 12:12-13).

My eyes found their tears yesterday…somewhere along the second stanza of “All Glory Laud and Honor.” I wanted it to matter to them. Truth is…it probably didn’t. At least not beyond the moment.

Marching in cadence with the pastor’s pace, they waved their branches. Twenty or so bearers of the palms…two of whom I call my own. I was moved by their participation. As quickly as they entered, they exited, leaving their palms as a witness of their presence…of having been a part of this occasion. An occasion meant for remembrance, and yet, probably one that sketched little significance across their hearts.

Palm Sunday. A day of announcement. A day of initiation. A day of pilgrimage to the one feast that should not be missed. Jesus’ Easter moment is just around the corner, and I am afraid I have done a poor job of preparing the hearts of my children for such a visitation.

How does one begin to prepare for such an occasion? An occasion that scripts pageantry alongside passion? Celebration alongside crucifixion? Shouts of acclamation alongside shouts of disdain? How can such lavish expression of opposing emotions sketch their existence within the same frame? How can we embrace Calvary when our hearts hunger for palms and pageantry?

We can because Christ did. Jesus embraced his inevitable.

“‘Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, tell him that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away.’” (Matthew 21:2-3).

Jesus began his pilgrimage to Calvary on the back of donkey. Gently, he approached his inevitable with tears in his own eyes. He wanted this moment to matter to them. Truth is…for most of them, it mattered little. He knew this would be the case, even as he voiced the sadness within…

“‘If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes.’” (Luke 19:42).

But their eyes could not vision beyond their palms of welcome and their pleas for rescue.

Palms. Palms of splendor, reserved for royalty. For triumphed victory over the enemy. For kingdom moments graced with a king’s presence. For parades atop the cloaks and branches of a peoples’ homage.

Pleas. Pleas for deliverance. Pleas for release…for liberation…for relief. “‘Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’” Hosanna!—Save us! Please save us now! Be the righteous salvation that the prophet Zechariah foretold (Zechariah 9:9).

Palms and pleas and pageantry. All fodder for a good parade. Christ allowed them their moment, even though their eyes were temporarily blinded to its significance. He knew there would come a day…a day beyond this first Palm Sunday…when we would remember and realize that, in fact, the King did process. That the battle was won over the enemy. That a Savior has come…is come…to deliver, to rescue, to liberate and to relieve.

Jesus knew that Easter stood on the other side of his surrender. Resurrection awaited his arrival. It would be a long walk between the two, but willingly he embraced the journey.

He asks us to do the same. To take time to recall these sacred moments of his history. Our King has conquered death. Our Savior has conquered sin. He, alone, is worthy of our palms and our parades and our hosannas. Our participation in such sacred remembrance matters to him, for it speaks of a day yet to come.

“After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: ‘Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.’” (Revelation 7:9-10).

Palm Sunday 2000 years ago. Palm Sunday 2008. Palm Sunday in a season yet to come. Who can fathom the mysteries of our God?

Let us not rush to Easter. We are quick to move from one Sunday to the next. Could it be that God is calling us to tarry awhile longer on the road with his Son? He has called me to such an embrace, and so this day I bring my palms and my pleas and wave them before my King. I lay my filthy cloak at his feet and ask him to consecrate it with his own. To step high and wide and long and deep until my soul is embedded with the footprint of his soles…marked forever for kingdom living. Truth is…it matters to me a great deal. It means everything to me, and so I pray…

Humbly, Father, I bring my palms and my pleas and my filthy rags and lay them all before you this day. You are worthy of a far greater offering, and yet your grace readily receives my homage. Forgive me, Lord, when I forget your walk of surrender…when I callously process through tradition rather than submitting to sacred remembrance. Walk over my life, Lord, until all that can be seen are the footprints that will lead others on the path to Calvary. I submit my heart and my feet for such a journey. Amen.

peace for the journey~elaine

(eolsen2008/allrightsreserved)

A Walk of Hope

“Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.”
(Proverbs 13:12).

Deferment. Fulfillment. And every step in between.

It is a walk that spans the spectrum of human emotion. From sadness to joy. From sickness to health. From empty to overflow.

It is a walk of hope. A journey of expectant steps toward an anticipated end. An end that yields blossoms. Fruit. Life abundant.

But when the walk requires a longer obedience…a drawn out and prolonged submission…the dreams of blossoms and fruit and abundant living fall prey to disease. Heart sickness. Sinking, sagging sickness that burrows deep within the soul and cries out for understanding.

Why God? Why me? Why not me? Am I not worthy of some dreams? Of blossoms and fruit and life? It seemed like a good hope, a well-intentioned desire. A longing wakened and crafted by your divine will. Why then, am I here Father? Stuck. On hold. Hope diminishing by the minute.

For each one of us who walk the path of hope, it is a familiar grip…this seeming stranglehold of dreams. Our hearts hurt when hope is paused, longing, instead, for our trees to blossom with hope realized. And in between these extremes, God asks us to patiently continue in our trust. To wait on him to move.

When we give ourselves over to a time of sacred waiting, one of two things happens.

Either our hope becomes reality within God’s perfect timing, or our hope becomes reshaped through the loving heart of a Father who has our anticipated “end” in mind. God never removes our hope. But there are times when he requires its surrender to the flames of his refining fire, so that what emerges is a purer hope, more closely in line with his intended purpose for our lives.

Hopes crafted by our Creator never go unrealized.

Two thousands years ago, a walk of hope commenced upon the soil of Judea. A few men, alongside their Teacher, journeyed through the sands of a hard obedience. Their hearts would know the pain of deferment. Many would cry their “whys?” in private. One would cry his “why” from his intended cross.

“‘Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? … My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’” (Mark 15:34)

Christ understands the language of deferment. He lived it. He knew the language of longing…of hopes put on hold for a season. His longings were and always have been couched within our need. Our need for blossoms and fruit and abundant living. But before his hope would be realized, his hope would be shaped through the flames of his Father’s purifying love.

Hope deferred. Not forgotten. Not diminished. Simply prolonged…long enough for love’s redeeming work to be done.

In the end, longing was fulfilled. Hope was realized. And a Calvary tree blossomed with the fruit of abundant living.

Christ understands the language of fulfillment. He lived it. He IS it! The Tree of all Life.

In the next week, you and I will once again walk the road to Calvary to remember Christ’s walk of surrender—an Easter pilgrimage that we must make, for we are an Easter people. It is a week that embodies the fullness of hope. Hopes deferred and hopes fulfilled. A journey of sadness, sickness, and emptiness. A journey of joy, health, and overflow.

The cross stands as a witness to them both. For within its crude structure, Hope was deferred…crucified, dead and buried in sacred surrender and trust. On the third day, Hope was fulfilled…resurrected and realized. The tree of sacrifice became the tree of Life. And every moment lived between the two was wrought with divine significance and purpose.

I do not know where you are today in your walk of hope. I stand somewhere between the extremes of deferment and fulfillment. There are some dreams in my heart that have simmered for a long season. Stretched out hopes that have required a difficult obedience. But God has not removed them; therefore I am learning the language of surrender, knowing that his fires of refinement will purify them for his sacred purposes.

Perhaps you are walking a similar path. If so, then let us walk it together. Let us journey alongside the One who is well familiar with our sorrows…our heart sickness…our hopes and our dreams. Let us trust him for their fulfillment. Let us rest in the surety of his plan, even though these moments seem unsure…unsteady and uncertain. All of our “whys” are answered with his love.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16).

Abundant life. Blossoms and fruit. Hope realized. The only walk worthy of these feet, and so I pray…

Lead me, Father, along your path of hope until one day my hope is realized in your presence. Only then will all the deferment that I have known and all the fruit that I have blossomed make perfect sense. In the temporal, give me a measure of understanding. I cannot fully reason through my seasons of waiting, but I can bear them…even rejoice in them because I know that your refining presence yields hopes and dreams aligned with your will. Thank you, Savior, for your walk of deferment. For your surrender to the fire, and for you astounding love that led you there. You, alone, are worthy my praise. You are the realized Hope of my every longing. Amen.

peace for the journey~elaine
(eolsen/allrightsreserved, 2008)

Beyond Zero

Beyond Zero

“My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” (Psalm 139:15-16).

“Mom, when I was born was I zero?”

I knew what she meant even as she spoke these words from her tender heart. Three other children had prepared me for such a question. She wanted to know when we began to count her days. Did her days begin on August 5, 2002, or did some other time span factor in? I was quick to respond.

“Honey, you have never been a zero. We began to count your days long before we saw your face. God began to count your days even before then.”

She stared out the window, her curiosity satisfied, as mine began its ascent.

When does life begin? Is there ever a point of “zero-ness”? A moment of nothing that suddenly explodes into everything? How would you respond to such a question? Your answer embodies your theology.

Long before Amelia made her entrance into our lives, she stole the stage of her Father’s thoughts. I never imagined having a daughter. If it had been up to me, there would have only been three. But in a moment unbeknownst to me, God imagined her. He determined her entrance. He determined her exit. All of her days he determined…before one cry resounded from her lips.

For some mysterious reason, he chose the confines of my womb to house her unformed body, as he carefully put frame and flesh to his wild imaginings. He fashioned her in my likeness and implanted within her emotions of the same severity. He knew this would bring me delight, as my three sons bare only a slight resemblance. Indeed, she is cut from my cloth by the same hands Who cut me from my mother’s. Who knitted me together and adorned my life with splashes of untamed color and limitless possibilities.

He set eternity into her heart long before I would hear its pulse (Ecc. 3:11). Indeed, who can fathom what God has done from beginning to end? His thoughts are not my thoughts. They are higher and far more sacred than mine. They are innumerable and vast…outnumbering the grains of the sand (Psalm 139:17-18). And yet it is those thoughts…that one thought in the mind of my God…that shatters my known realities and brings me to surrendered knees every time I think upon it.

Human life has never been a “zero.” Those who speak chronologically…politically and correctly…well, they give us a starting point. Life begins at birth. But I have never quite understood political correctness. I speak the language of my Father, and I believe that life begins before birth. I believe that life begins before conception. Life begins in the thoughts of God.

In the genesis of all beginnings, God hovered over his waters. Somewhere in the vast brushstrokes of this earth’s conception…between seemingly “nothing” and everything…God’s breath began to move the waves in rhythm with his will. Somewhere there…in the mind of the most mysterious and yet One and only accessible God, we were in his thoughts. We were the intended outcome of his six day extravaganza. The first five days were simply a prelude to our unveiling—to our center stage moment that received a “very good”…from the lips of our Audience.

He knows the thoughts he thinks toward us. Thoughts of peace, and not of evil. Thoughts of an expected end. Plans and a future filled with prospering hope and possibilities (Jeremiah 29:11). He determines the times set for us and the exact places where we should live. The generation in which we will live. He did this so that we would seek him (Acts 17:26-28). So that we would reach beyond our known realities and search for deeper Truth. Better Truth. Truer Truth. The only Truth that matters in the end. For in the end…

Jesus is the Way…the Truth…and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through him, and I want to meet my Father…face to face. So I will accept the unknowns of this life, knowing that one day I will have my answers. For all of the mysteries that he holds hidden within his heart, there is one mystery that is perfectly clear within mine.

I am not a zero. Never have been. Neither have you. You are the creative genius of a God who ordained all of your days before one of them came into being. Your life took planning. Even if your parents did not plan your existence…your God did. He has spent an eternity watching you take shape in his mind, and now he is pleased to introduce you to his world. You are the sixth day punctuation point of your Father’s heart. Never underestimate your beginning. Never “get over” Who awaits you at your end.

In closing, I ask you to consider, once again, the question of my daughter’s heart.

“Mom, when I was born was I zero?”

What do you think? Does she look like a zero? Search your heart, even as I have searched mine. Do so with some fear and trembling under the mighty guidance of your Creator. Casual pondering leads to casual theology. And so I pray, alongside you…

Father, search my heart. Deepen my understanding of my beginning. Give me a sacred theology, one that most closely resembles who you really are. Let me not be swayed by earthly opinion…by tainted religions and philosophies that demean the process of your Creation. Give me your perspective on human life. A higher and clearer perspective that values your thoughts more than man’s limited realities. Shake my realities, Lord, until they fall in line with the Truth. Thank you that I have always been your constant thought and never a zero. May you always be my Constant. Beginning to end…all of my days belonging to you. Amen.

peace for the journey~elaine
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