Peace for the Journey | Elaine Olsen

Raising Faith (part seven): Embracing Your DNA

August 5, 2008

For Miss Amelia who crashed onto my scene six years ago this day, teaching me of tender and pink and lovely! Together, we are finding our pretty in Jesus Christ. You are my heart, precious daughter. Happy Birthday.

August 5, 2002

“How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”
(1 John 3:1-2).

Some say I look like her.

(grandma maybelle, elaine)

Some say she looks like me.

(elaine, daughter amelia)

Either way, I don’t mind. I like family imprints and being able to trace genetic resemblances from one generation to the next.

It shouts the message of connection…

of belonging.
of fitting.
of having roots…past, present, and future.

There’s something sacred about family resemblances—a deep, abiding truth that lies within the woven fabric of a shared identity. There are no random or accidental look alikes. My favoring of grandma and my daughter’s favoring of me is by divine design. God had a say in the matter, and I like knowing that the same hands who formed Maybelle are the same hands who fashioned me and my Amelia. Decades and centuries have not blurred his focus. Rather, he has kept the blueprints on file and tweaked them according to his desire.

All of us share some similarities with members of our family tree. If not physically, then perhaps along the lines of personality and preferences. We can’t help but wear some of the influence of our upbringing. For good or for ill, it is the stock trade we’ve been portioned and is worthy of our attention this day.

For all of the ways we clothe our flesh with the family DNA, none is more important than the way that we wear our heritage of faith.

If you were raised in a family void of God and grace, then some of your cloaking may wear lean and empty and seemingly full of pointless. If, however, you were surrounded by the truth of Jesus and his love during your formative years, then your cloaking may wear warmer and richer and full of purpose. Either way, it matters what you wear because our faith is the rooting for the next generation of young minds and hearts.

I don’t want to simply resemble my grandmother in looks. I want to resemble her in the way that she lived her faith.

In the same way, I don’t want my daughter to simply favor me in the mirror. I want her to favor me in her heart. I want her to love Jesus more than she loves her momma or her daddy or her big, beautiful brothers. I want her to wake up each day knowing that her mother’s faith lives on in her. That she can walk and talk and journey through this life with her Creator by her side. That she can be a woman of kingdom influence because her family tree is rooted in the depths of a sacred soil.

It is a soil that began with a long-ago garden’s planting and that will one day end in a soon-to-be garden’s harvest. Jesus, himself, will come to gather his own. We are his own—co-heirs of the promise and children of the Most High God. We are a lavishly loved people because that is the way of a Father’ heart. To love and to shape and to change us into his incredible likeness day by day.

Not because our God needs a following. Not because his ego dictates an audience, but rather, because, our Father longs to give us his forever.

And forever, my friends, includes our full becoming—an “as he is” likeness because the power of Calvary’s bloodline lives and breathes in our spiritual DNA through faith in Jesus Christ. We are the seeded hope of our Father’s sacred intention. He means for us to look like him. To act like him. To love like him, and to grace like him.

We were created in God’s image, intended for his resemblance. No greater words of commendation could ever be spoken over our earthly lives.

To mirror Jesus is to herald the message of connection…

of belonging.
of fitting.
of having roots…past, present, and future.

And if faith is to be raised in this generation, then we must embrace the truth of our spiritual DNA. We must be willing, in turn, to pass it on to the next generation of believers.

Genetic DNA lasts but a lifetime. Spiritual DNA, however, lasts for all eternity. The family tree that we share with Jesus is the one that will trace us to our forever. It is rooted in Love. It will end in Love, and it will continue to bloom because of Love.

Indeed, how great is the love of our Father that we should be called sons and daughters of his! And that is what we are!

And that, my friends, is more than enough for me this day, and so I pray,

Thank you, Father, for calling me yours. For giving me your image and for breathing your Spirit into this feeble flesh. Transform my heart, my soul, my mind, and my will into your likeness. Let my life mirror your reflection in everything that I say and do; let me believe beyond my faith and grow my faith to mirror my belief. Teach me how to teach my children the value of their spiritual heritage. Not just in words, Father, but in living the message of connection that weaves from Thee to me and to my beyond. Above all, thank you for loving me as I am and for growing a family tree that includes a branch named Faith. I am forever humbled by your extravagant grace. Amen.

A "Mighty" Quick Word

August 4, 2008

I have about “zero” time to blog today. Life is in full swing here with school starting next Monday, daughter having her real birthday tomorrow, and VBS starting tonight.

That being said, I wanted to take a moment to share this with you.

It’s a bracelet I’ve been wearing for a year now. I had two made, one for a friend going through cancer issues and one for myself as a reminder to pray for her. If you look closely, you’ll notice the scripture reference engraved on the tag as Judges 6:12.

“When the angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon, he said, ‘The LORD is with you, mighty warrior.”

God is with us, friends. He’s named us as mighty, and he’s entrusted us with the battle! A winning combination all around, even in the midst of our tumultuous and our busy.

We can face it all…the front and the forward…because our Father has forged the way. He stands at the helm and he guards from the rear. Our job?

Finding our rest somewhere in between (see Isaiah 52:11-12…one of my favorite scriptures…I’m tempted to wander on about it, but time dictates I save it for another day).

I like that. It’s a picture of peace I can walk into without hesitation. I hope that you, too, can find enough faith this day to paint yourself in the scene. We’re breathing this journey together, and I count my life richly blessed for having you alongside.

Enough said.

Go in the strength that you have because you’ve been clothed with the Almighty Spirit of the One, Living, and True God.

And Grace (comment #14),

you’re the winner of Alicia’s book “Anonymous.” I trust that if it is a duplicate for you, you’ll find a good home for it. Email me the snail mail, and I’ll get it to you in swift measure. Grace is one of my favorite blogging stops. She always leaves me with a smile and is worth your visit.

As always,

~elaine

If you think about it today, pray for the young lives that will be attending our VBS this week. I’m in charge of the “story room.” Tonight’s focus? None other than a mighty warrior named Gideon. Shalom!

Saturday Stress

August 3, 2008

“… let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:1-2).

Saturday stress. My portion. How about you?

What do…

paying bills,
school shopping,

hosting a birthday party,

staring at a non-functioning blog (thanks sitemeter),

and working on an upcoming Vacation Bible School have in common?

Absolutely nothing from a worldly perspective. But add God into the mix, and the thread weaves clearer.

Temporal things.

I’ve got them. You’ve got them. We are all living and breathing them until we’ve nearly choked to death from their stranglehold.

We have got some pitchin’ and some throwin’ to do if we’re going to press into God’s eternal. There’s a real danger in holding tightly to “things” that were never meant to last. Good things, perhaps. Necessary things, but in the end, things that won’t follow us to our forever.

God knew we would struggle with kingdom focus. That is why he gave us the witness of his Spirit and the power of his Word. Let me stray one day from his presence, and I can almost guarantee a mired perspective. Martha is alive and well in my house this night and looking a great deal like the woman I see in the mirror. Mary? Well, she’s here too. At least her heart is, but her sitting and her seeking have fallen prey to the urgent and the immediate. She doesn’t mean to hide. She simply has succumbed to the pressing necessary.

It is hard to be a Mary in a Martha necessary. Wouldn’t you agree? I was born a Mary, but there are times when I must embrace my Martha and walk my required portion of essential living.

And therein lies the rub.

Essential versus non-essential. Who decides?

Hebrews 12 gives us the answer. The “who” is Jesus. He authored our beginning. He will punctuate our ending, and the life lived between the two chronicles the journey of our perfected faith. Rarely does it read pretty, but always should it read him. He is the essential and should remain our focus despite our propensity for either a Mary seeking or a Martha doing. Everything else is just filler.

My filler has been full to overflow today. As I look over my list of “doing” I don’t think that God is displeased with my choices. I simply believe that he wishes for a little more of my heart in the midst of those choices. To take time…

*to thank him for the provision to pay my bills and to do my children’s school shopping.
*to slow down long enough to enjoy the candles and the cake and the beautiful daughter who was fashioned by his hands in my womb over six years ago.
*to realize that “sitemeter” and “blogging” is sometimes less about him and more about me tracking my ego.
*to relish another VBS occasion when the greatest story on earth and in heaven will take to the stage via my words and my actions.

We will never completely resolve our temporal with our eternal. Not on this side of heaven. There will be a constant tug between our casting off and our pressing on. Between our Martha and our Mary. Between our immediate necessary and our eternal necessary. It is the way of our fleshly now.

But there is coming a then. A joy that exceeds the stress of a Saturday and replaces the chaos of our current. Even as it was set before Jesus, it sits before us…behind us…all around us.

Eternity. The essential, urgent, and necessary pulse of our Father’s heart. One beat after another in perfect cadence with the Creator’s plan.

He is worth our pitchin’ and throwin’ tonight. He is worthy of our run, so let us lace up our shoes, fix our focus, and keep to the path that will lead us home…straight into the arms of the One who authors the perfect ending to a less than perfect journey. I’m so glad he’s the one holding the pen, for he is the only one who can bring peace to my journey, and so I pray…

Write my story, Father, with kingdom perspective. Let not my essential drown out my eternal. Strengthen my frame for the road head. Give me a mind to choose wisely, the feet to run swiftly, and the heart to seek fully the truth and joy set before me. And when I am tempted to mire my focus in the temporal, shatter my vision with the reality of my forever. Help me to let go so that I can take hold. Simply let go and completely take hold. You are the grip of my heart tonight. Amen.

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Anonymous

August 1, 2008

“After the Feast was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. … When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, ‘Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.’ ‘Why were you searching for me?’ he asked. ‘Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?’ But they did not understand what he was saying to them.” (Luke 2:43, 48-50).

We all have them.

Hidden seasons.

Times in life when we feel closeted away in anonymity from the rest of world. Perhaps by choice. Perhaps by circumstance. Perhaps through the purposeful intent of another. Perhaps by God. Regardless of the reason behind our hidden estate, once there, it’s easy to find our lament for such a seemingly insignificant season. Rather than embracing the quiet and trust of hidden moments, we cry out for the noise and clamor of the stage.

I know. I’ve lived it. I’ve cried it, but rarely have I embraced it.

Jesus knew what it was to live in anonymity. He spent most of his life behind the shadows of a curtain that wouldn’t fully rise until he was thirty years of age. We only have a few snapshots of his early years. One of those photographs occurred at the temple when he was twelve years old.

The Gospel of Luke, chapter two, paints a master portrait of hide and seek.

One hiding…seeking his Divine.

One seeking…in search of her divinely Hidden.

Son seeking Father. Mother seeking Son, and at the end of the day, both discovering that hidden moments are often the occasion for God’s sacred shaping…for being about the business of the extraordinary rather than settling for the ordinary. It’s a discovery that I am learning.

It doesn’t always make sense to me…these past forty-two years of living that have walked more anonymous than not. There have been moments of clarity along the way—times when I’ve seen God’s hand in my hiddenness. But most days, I feel lost…unsure as to what I am supposed to be doing with it all—with these gifts and promises that I have been granted by the gracious grace of a Father’s love.

I want to relinquish my will to my daily portion, but so often my will cries out for something different. For more. For quicker access to the stage and for bigger accomplishments in God’s kingdom agenda. I want to bypass the shaping and get on with the fruit bearing. I want the harvest without the process of the seeding and the waiting. I want to be my Father’s go-to girl, but rarely do I get the green light.

This is the often and familiar ache of my heart. I have a hunch that some of you are feeling it also.

Good news.

Jesus perfectly understands such a hunger. He lived it.

Good news again.

Jesus has given us a window into understanding our hidden seasons by using the pen of a woman named Alicia Britt Chole to spotlight his.

A couple of years ago, I came across her book, Anonymous: Jesus’ Hidden Years and Yours. The title struck a deep chord within me, and I immediately ordered the book. Since then, I’ve read and re-read the book several times over. Imagine my joy when I learned that Alicia was adding a Bible study guide to her book along with DVD teaching segments! I received the news just about the time I was making a decision regarding our church’s upcoming Fall Bible study. Sight unseen, I ordered the study and am delighted to bring her heart’s stirring to my Tuesday night gals. We are on board to begin mid-September.

Alicia is one of the finest authors/speakers of our modern-day era. She doesn’t waste a word, and she doesn’t intend for us to stay as we are. She intends for us to draw deeper into our pondering and understanding of Jesus. She’s a genuine and passionate pursuer of the Truth. She makes me want to be a better…

Writer.
Thinker.
Mother.
Seeker.

She’s not the usual or the ordinary, although she would probably beg to differ. She’s better. She’s real, and that is why I am delighted to share in her ministry by telling you about her giftings.

A couple of weeks ago, Susan sent me a surprise in the mail. She had recently been at one of Alicia’s speaking engagements. She knew of my fondness for Alicia’s work and promptly purchased a copy of Anonymous for my collection. When Alicia commented to her that I already had the book, Susan simply said, “I know. I just think Elaine would love to have a signed copy.”

Guess what?

I do, and inside the book Alicia simply, yet beautifully challenges me to “Be still and grow.”

That, in essence, is the message of Anonymous. Being still in the silence and growing in the sacred shaping of a Savior. I love this study, friends. God has used Alicia’s tender obedience in penning her thoughts to change my perspective about my seasons of silence and anonymity. I will close by offering you a few of Alicia’s words…

“As with a child in the womb and a seed in the ground, God’s unanticipated move of hiding Jesus granted him protected, undisturbed room to be and become. From God’s perspective, anonymous seasons are sacred spaces. They are quite literally formative; to be rested in, not rushed through—and most definitely never to be regretted. Unapplauded, but not unproductive: hidden years are the surprising birthplace of true spiritual greatness.”[i]

I hope that you will all take the time to visit Alicia at her website and blog. Her resource room is full of valuable materials and free downloads that are worthy of your every consideration. One disclaimer in the matter…

If you’re after fluff, take a pass. You won’t find it with Alicia. She’s after our transformation through the power of God’s Word and his abiding Spirit. It is what I am after, and I want it for you, too. Thus, for those who leave a comment on this post and on any others that follow this week, I will enter your name to win a copy of Alicia’s book. The winner will be announced on Monday.

As always,

~elaine

[i] Alicia Britt Chole, Anonymous (Franklin: Integrity Publishers, 2006), 13.

PS: If you live in the area and are interested in participating in our Tuesday night study, please feel free to e-mail me. And just in case you didn’t know how I am feeling about my family’s return from Bolivia…

Didn’t they do a fine job at guest blogging? I may be out of a job! Thank you for your many kind and heart-felt comments. You are the best blogging friends ever! Shalom.

Pastor Guillermo

July 30, 2008

Until now, regular readers of peace for the journey have known me as Elaine’s husband and her number one fan. Now for the first time I am a guest contributor to her blog, which coincides with another important first in my life—my first mission trip outside the USA.

A team of 16 young adults and chaperones left our church on July 16, 2008, for the South American nation of Bolivia and a new orphanage established by the Methodist Church of Bolivia. The Andes Mountain range is second only to the Himalayas as the highest in the world and is home to the Aymaran Indians, the native people of Bolivia. For ten days we called this harsh, desperately poor but splendid place our home.

Tacachia rests at the end of a forty mile stretch of winding mountain road. My sense of “belonging” in that little village was challenged from the very beginning. As one of Tacachia’s newest residents my name was a problem: “Billy.”

Billy is the name that I have answered to for almost forty-one years of living, but to a rural population that spoke only Spanish and Aymaran, none of them had ever met a “Billy” and had great difficulty pronouncing my name. I had a choice to make: to insist that everyone in my new home struggle with a name that defied their tongues’ best efforts, or I could change my name. The choice was easy. My high school Spanish teacher had us use the Spanish equivalent of our English names in class. Thanks to those lessons from long ago I quickly exchanged “Billy” for “Guillermo,” which is Spanish for “William.”

Instead of loosing any precious sense of my identity, compromising my standards, or watering down the Gospel message, the Lord led me to a deeper understanding of what it means to “deny myself.” When Jesus said to His disciples, in Matthew 16:24 “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me,” Jesus meant that we have to be willing to replace our standards with His standards. As long as we stay close to the place we call home and the local church we call our own, self denial may not seem like a big deal. But what does the Lord require of His people when He leads us among strangers?

I believe that Acts 1:4-8 is concrete proof that Jesus does not use a “sliding scale” in measuring mission work. The idea of local missions, verses overseas missions, and one being better than another is an invention of man and not of God. Wherever you are, if you are a baptized believer in Jesus Christ, you are in the mission field. As missionaries, there is an ever present temptation to value our station in life, our title, our accomplishments, our circumstances, to the point that the world around us feels like they have no hope of relating to us.

To the people of Tacachia, “Pastor Billy” was a name their tongues could not grasp. They could not greet me. They could not introduce me to their neighbors. They could not hope to have any kind of intimate relationship with me, because “Pastor Billy” was the name of a stranger who wanted to remain a stranger. But “Pastor Guillermo” was a welcome guest who wanted to know them and wanted to be known by them.

What about my other names? I am a United Methodist pastor. I am an Elder in the Church. I have an undergraduate degree from Pfeiffer College and a Masters of Divinity from Asbury Theological Seminary. I am proud of all these names—up to the point that these parts of my “identity” might become an obstacle in proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Ten days with Pastor Guillermo taught me that my own selfishness has been the biggest obstacle in keeping me from sharing the love of Jesus.

Ten days with Pastor Guillermo taught me that Christians have to be willing to deny the things we often prize the most, for the sake of the least and the lost.

Ten days with Pastor Guillermo taught me that Christians have to love Jesus more than we love denomination, or education, or anything else that might build a wall between us and those He sends us too.

Ten days with Pastor Guillermo taught me that the most important thing I have to offer the Lord on the mission field is my obedience.

As it was with Pastor Guillermo, so I want it to be with Pastor Billy. I want to love others more than myself and to prize relationships over ego…Christ above self.

The lesson of my mission field has not been an identity crisis, but rather has been the fertile soil to finding my true identity in Christ. Not everyone will need a trip to South America to learn how to part with their selfishness, but as Elaine will attest, I’ve never been very good at doing things the easy way. God used Pastor Guillermo to humble Pastor Billy.

I’m so glad for the occasion to have met him in the little village of Tacachia.

peace for the journey~
Billy

If you want to learn more about the medical mission society that helped us organize our trip to Bolivia, please click on this link to Curamericas. Details about the Kory Wawanaca Children’s Home of Tacachia, Bolivia can be viewed at their website.