A Reflection on my 30s

10 years ago, around this same time, my girls were 10 and 8. My oldest would have been just getting ready to go into 6^th grade and my younger into 3^rd. I would have just finished up my first year of teaching 5/6^th grade and (unknown to me at the time) one year away from teaching high school English lit. My girls were homeschooled. I was pursuing my SLP degree. My husband was AGR in the Air Force. Life wasn’t bad and there was so much on the horizon.

Since that day so many things have happened…. We transitioned the girls into public school. My younger into an arts charter (later a small IB middle school, and finally to Renaissance HS) My older daughter into Renaissance HS. They’ve had their ups and downs. Friend transitions, school transitions, leaving the church, hormonal years of Jr. High, the pressure years of high school. And they’ve turned out phenomenally. They are both kind, compassionate, thinking, caring girls who want to make the world a better place. They both have gone on to graduate high school with honors, obtaining their IB diplomas, and are excited about their future. I couldn’t be prouder of the people they have become.

Alongside the girls getting older, my husband and I have had our ups and downs. Just a few years into my 30s we hit a fork in the road, divorce felt like the only option, fear, anger, and uncertainty rested like a cloud over our marriage. And we didn’t let that stop us. With the help of phenomenal friends and a lot of hard work we learned a new dance; one that would honor both of us. We shuffled through what type of music we’d both like, stepped on each others toes, and prayed more than ever that God would make it work. Six years removed I can say that it was all worth it. I can’t imagine living life without Steven; he truly is my best friend, my place of comfort, and my love.

And I, I have changed… So many lessons have been learnedthrough the abundance of loving, caring friends over the years. I have learned how to trust, and to be trusted. I have learned how to have confidence in myself. I have learned how to standup, step out, and support those in dark places. I have learned that each person’s deepest hurt, is their deepest hurt (their deepest level of pain, is their deepest level of pain) no comparison is necessary. I have learned that God is so much more than I can ever comprehend. I have learned that God is always good, and he’s reflected in every good thing. I have learned that though things are imperfect, God is not, and he moves in and through the imperfect. I have learned that compassion is gained as you listen to the stories of others. I have learned that I don’t have to compromise my morality in order to have compassion for others. I have learned that the stories I make up in my head are often warped representations of reality. I have learned that my body will forever change, so I’d better learn to appreciate it like a loyal friend. I have learned that death is the win and life is a gift. I have learned that a smile, a text, an encouraging note can be life changing. I have learned the decisions that I think are life changing often are not and the decisions that I think are flippant are often the ones that change my life. I have learned that family is priceless, that friends are precious, and that community is essential. I have learned that my emotions are often not a representation of the current situation. I have learned that there are few things worth fighting for. I have learned that my mind, body, soul, and spirit are intertwined and each one needs to be cared for, nourished, and honored. I have learned that most things are not what they appear to be. I have learned that forgiveness is freedom. I have learned that connection and communication happens in vulnerability, truth, and love. I have learned that shame grows in the dark and dissipates in the light. I have learned that courage and fear are catalysts to faith and trust. I have learned not to be defined by my past. I have learned that I am worth more than I think I am. I have learned that I don’t know as much as I think I do. I have learned that I can learn from everyone and every situation. And I have learned that there is so much more for me to learn.

As I move forward into my 40s I hope and pray that I will remain open, soft, and sensitive to all of God’s nudges in my life. That I will see each person for who they are, where they are, and the purity of who they were created to be. And that I would walk to the rhythm of his heartbeat for me, growing in trust, courage, confidence, faith, hope, and love.

Learning to be like a whale…

A small parallel to life that has brought me great peace lately…

As a grey whale goes through it’s life swimming, resting, gliding, and simply being a whale, there are parasites that attach itself to the whale that can cause disease and damage. The harm from these parasites is often passed onto the whale’s offspring causing pain for generations. Yet God, in his beautiful wisdom, didn’t leave the whale out in the ocean helpless to fight off these deadly leeches alone. Throughout the ocean are fish that feed off these parasites. All a whale has to do is simply swim and be and the fish will come, eat the parasites off the whale. Making it healthy, braking off drag and resistance, giving it an easier glide through the water.

It was this image I saw a few weeks ago in worship. God was telling me to rest, relax and let him take care of all those things in life I feel like I need to fix about me and about others. Swim through his presence. Rest in his great expanse. Enjoy the beauty of who he is and he will do the rest. He takes care of the great whales of the sea, he can definitely take care of me.

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. – Hebrews 11.1

Thank you God for taking care of all the things I can see as well as those I can’t. Thank you that I don’t have to focus on those things that I think need fixed. Thank you that I can rest in who you are, trust your guidance, and swim gracefully in your presence as I glide through this beautiful journey of life.

For he will not much remember the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart. Ecclesiastes 5.20

Be still and know that I am God… Psalm 46.10

Musings With Merton

“Perhaps I have been struggling with an illusory idea of freedom, as if I were not, to a great extent, bound by my own history, the history of Gethsemani, of the country where I have become a citizen, etc. There are only certain very limited and special avenues of freedom open to me now, and it is useless to fight my way along where no issue is possible. This is true not only exteriorly but even interiorly and spiritually. To say that God can open up new ways is perhaps, among other things, to admit only He has provided ways for me of which I cannot yet be aware, since I am too intent upon imaginary and experimental ones.” Thomas Merton –

How do we know we’re on the right path? {Trust}

How do we know we’re trusting the right things? {Look}

How do we know we’re looking at the you?

{Open your eyes to see, I’m holding you close to me.

My grace overflows you; my love empowers you.

To hold true to the journey,

Simply Be.}

Learning to Dance

Processing this passage of Galatians 3.23- 4.20 I love how Paul contrasts child and slave. The heart of freedom though sonship. Emphasizing that we are no longer slaves, but heirs to the promise is such a beautiful image: That we are no longer bound by laws, pain, and ways of this life but free to dance, sing, and be who we are. To live in the grace that we have with Jesus’ spirit inside of us calling out, “Abba Father!” Wow! The magnitude of that reality, I doubt I’ll ever be able to fully embrace.

It’s been many long seasons of lessons that have allow me to begin to know what it’s like to dance. A few years back during an amazing training I was in, they walked us through an exercise of laying down all that was holding us back. Through that exercise I began to see an image of a little girl.

Like a movie when they focus in on a specific person, I saw an image in the distance that quickly was right before my eyes: a little girl hunched over, laying on a boulder twice her size. She was about 8 years old, light brown hair hanging past her shoulders, stringy and knotted with girt and oil. Dirt covered her body like an extra layer of clothing. Her dress thin and ragged, torn from years of neglect. The light blue flower pattered faded into the background, barely visible to those who had never seen the dress in it’s original state. As I looked closer something caught my eye. A large shackle was hanging around her left ankle chaining her to the boulder in which she lay. It was at that point that I realized this boulder, so cold and hard, had been her bed, the place she sat by day and slept by night.
Looking up, our eyes met. Her sweet brown eyes, moist with tears, quickly averted my gaze and became fixated upon her small clutched hand. My heart leapt and broke when I saw what was in her tiny fist. Poking out from either side were the ends of a key. I gently placed my hands beneath hers, cradling them, willing her small fist to open, to let me free her from this chain, this boulder, she had called her home. Without words we spoke.

“Why are you still here?”

“I’m afraid…”

“Open your hand and let me set you free.”

“I can’t. I’ve tried. My hand won’t open.”

“Then let me do it for you.”

And with that little bit of trust, her small hand opened. Placing the key into the lock the shackle fell off. The little girl looked at me, tears streaming down her face, unsure of what to do next.

“I’m still afraid.”

“It’s because that is all you have known. It’s where you’ve made your bed, and where you’ve placed your head each night. It’s time for you to move on.”

“I don’t think my legs can walk.”

“Just try, you’ll find you are much stronger than you think you are. Trust Him you aren’t in this alone.”

Lifting her head, she saw a trail leading out of the darkness she had been living in. With unsteady arms and wobbly legs she lowered herself onto the dirt path. Slowly at first, calculating each step, she moved forward. Glancing back at me, and at her old home one last time, she continued on. The further down the path she went the faster her pace became, until she was eventually running, arms open wide.
Until finally there she was in a field of wildflowers, dancing in the wind. Something unexplainable happened to this little girl along that path. She was radiant. The dirt that had covered her before had been replaced with the glow of innocence, the sun reflecting off her being. As she spun in circles letting her small hands run along the tops of the wildflowers you could see her winsome hair flowing in the breeze. The vibrant blue flowers on her dress weaving in and out adding their own beauty to the field. Our eyes met as she twirled around, pausing ever so briefly, her smile catching mine, knowing she never had to live on her boulder of fear again.

It was with this image, that I began to see what trust, freedom, and grace were to me.

Thank you Daddy God that we don’t have to live chained to the law… to fear… to doubt. Thank you that you set us free from whatever we are bound to. Thank you that we can dance in the field of your grace, hope, and love knowing it is in you that we can truly live.

Tapestry of Grace

One of the things I love most about Galatians is its continued message of freedom, grace, and life through Jesus. It’s the gospel story told over and over and over again. It’s as if Paul is saying, ‘If you didn’t understand it that way, let me tell it to you this way. I will keep explaining it to you until it sinks from your head to your heart and back up again. So that your whole world view, your perspective on everything, is changed. In order for this message to become the sole filter you sift everything through.’

And so we come to Galatians 3.15-25 – an analogy. A modern example of what Christ did for us.

It must have been 3-4 years ago now that I first heard this analogy taught. I’m not sure where I was, all I know is that the comparison stayed with me for days, weeks, months, as I processed it, not only for what it was, but for what the implications of it would be.

It went something like this:

Imagine one day you get a letter in the mail that your mortgage has been paid in full. You call the bank to see what’s up and the voice an the other end tells you how a sweet stranger came in talking of how much they loved you and wanted to clear your name forever from this debt. You don’t have to make another payment the rest of your life…. Do you continue mailing in payments? Do you go to the bank and ask if you can clean their bathrooms, or file papers to help pay back your loan or to say thank you for what they’ve done. Of course not! They would look at you like you had lost your mind. They didn’t pay the debt; a complete stranger was the one who came in and loved you enough to set you free from the obligation. Find that person. Get to know them. Say thank you to them, not the bank.

Paul does the same thing here with the church in Galatia. In this short passage he uses the word promise 7 times. An old saying goes something like this – a promise is only as good as the person who said it. It’s in trusting that God is who he says he is and that he has already taken care of your debt. We don’t have to prove ourselves worthy in order to have relationship with him. It’s in and through him that we are worthy, free and loved.

There’s such a beautiful tapestry, interlaced in, among, and around us, like threads connecting, drawing each one together, wooing the spirit and soul to the reality of love, life, freedom and grace. It’s the beauty of the promise given by one who loves us before we know him, the worth and intricate value given because he created us, the trust that is built as we learn more of who he is, the belief in the promise that gives us courage to step out in freedom, the freedom that gives us strength to lean into that promise, the love that overwhelms the soul giving it peace to rest in his sweet, sweet whispered hope that resonates deep within our very essence.

This and this alone is the promise and in this my soul will find rest.

My Journey in Trust

According to Webster trust is defined as:

1. a : assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something

b : one in which confidence is placed

2. a : dependence on something future or contingent : hope

I was once told that faith in God is simply active trust. Trusting that God is who he says he is, trusting that I am who God says I am, trusting that God has done what He said he has done, trusting that I can simply rest in Him.

My journey with trust began about a year and a half ago. Up until that point I often found myself telling my children when asked why they couldn’t do something, “It’s not that I don’t trust you, it’s that I don’t trust anyone.”

I know where it all began: Growing up we moved nine times between the ages of three and eight, going to seven different schools by the end of my third grade year a total of ten by the time I graduated high school. The longest I spent at any one place were my three consecutive years in high school. I quickly learned that trust was something that wasn’t extended to people, places, or circumstances, because they would soon be out of my life. Opening my heart to risk being hurt, to me was like learning not to put my hand on a hot stove. It only took a couple of times before I resolved to never do that again.

So when I opened my heart to God, though it was very real, sincere, and honest, it wasn’t complete. I trusted him enough to get me to heaven, to take care of everything on the other side of eternity. Yet, when it came to things down here, where life had proven itself to be dark, I chose to take care of things on my own. Of course I would ask him to be part of things, it helped hide the blind spots of fear that so gripped my heart. Fear of: What if God isn’t who he says he is? What if I’m not who he says I am? What if in the end, he’s going to see what I see inside of me, the parts I haven’t been able to get rid of, and he too will leave? What if I am truly worthless? Without even knowing it, I had created a God to fit me. To fit what I thought I wanted, and one that fit the lies that I chose to hold onto.

I had gotten myself so convinced that the only place God could really hold me was in eternity. I began to fixate on it. Thinking of ways I could go be with him. I know a ‘good Christian’ isn’t supposed to think of suicide. And I did. For months I would think of ways I could make it look like an accident: How could I make sure my girls aren’t the ones to find me? What’s the quickest way to get me out of here? What can I do now to ensure everything is in place for when I leave? The questions went on…. it was beginning to consume me….

Thankfully I didn’t have the answers to all of those questions, and thankfully, God isn’t just in eternity. In the fall of 2011 I began a class called Aphesis: Immersion Experience. Where I began immersing myself in truth: truth of who God is, truth of who I am, truth of his intimate involvement in my life. I began reading books of the Bible as a whole, starting with 1Peter. A book full of hope and truth, the reality that life is hard, and that doesn’t change who God is. It was on that journey that everything changed for me. I began to release the chains of fear and law that were suffocating my soul. I began to step out and trust that God wasn’t going to leave me. That he was able to hold me here on this side of eternity. I began to simply sit, let him tell me truth, let him breath life into my soul.

When I read this passage (Galatians 3.1-14) I couldn’t help but relate to where the churches in Galatia were. To trust God enough to get things started, to trust him for what felt comfortable in trusting, and then relying myself for the rest of it. The verse, ‘for all who rely on works of the lay are under a curse.’ rang so true. That’s exactly where I was at, relying on myself, relying on my works, relying on my hope… cursed with a life of living in circles, always jumping, never able to fly, thinking it was in my power that I could change thing, I could be control, I could be safe.

In trusting that Jesus died to take all my guilt, all my shame, all my hurt, and all my pain, in holding onto hope in the truth, that is where my heart learned to be light, and I was able to learn to trust… one step at a time.

‘No distrust made him waiver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.’ Romans 4.10-21

Thank you God for your truth. Thank you for your hope. Thank you that you are bigger than anything that binds us in slavery, in hurt, in pain, in despair. Thank you that you took our guilt and shame, and that we can live in a peace of trust in you. Continue to remind me of your hope, continue to show me your truth. When I begin to fear, let me hear your sweet whispers in my ear…

Fully known and Unconditionally Loved

There are some passages that bring freedom to me more than others. Some books that stand out to me as places my soul wants to anchor down in and lay for awhile. Galatians has been that book, largely because of the truth in these verses Galatians 2.11-21.

You see for years I tried to earn my salvation, my acceptance with God. Believing that I was innately flawed and broken at my core kept me in a cycle of self-defeating behaviors. (Read more of that story here…) Before I new Christ those behaviors were socially unacceptable, trying to drown out the voice of inadequacy in my heart with anything that would satisfy my flesh at that moment. After I realized there was a Daddy God who loved me and wanted me as his own I continued to fight the inadequacy, I continued in beating myself up as often as possible, this time with all the things that gave me acceptance in the eyes of the ‘church world’.

Yet for all those years living as if I had it all together, I would still wake up broken, hurting and condemned inside. Living in a pool of shame and guilt for the person I thought I was, for the things I had done, and for the inability to make myself better. I couldn’t bring myself to accept that somehow I could be unconditionally loved. I continued to tell myself, ‘If only people knew what I had done….’ ‘If people saw what was really inside of me then…’ I was afraid to even finish the sentence, all I knew was that people couldn’t find out.

I could read verses like Galatians 2.16, “we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ… because by works of the law no one will be justified.” believe it in my head, longing for it to penetrate my heart, and walk away still feeling ashamed of who I was, unable to accept the truth.

I was slowly dying inside, the law was condemning me, sucking the life out of my soul.

It wasn’t until recently that my heart began to see the hope and life there is for me. The beauty in the freedom away from the law, the beauty of resting in who I was created to be, the realization that my sweet Daddy God has seen me completely and loves me unconditionally.

What freedom there is in that! I don’t have to prove my worth. I don’t have to wake up each day living in the slavery of lies telling me I’m worthless, condemned, and broken beyond restoration. I can open my eyes knowing there’s a grace bigger than the ugliness of my sins. There’s a love deeper than the wounds in my heart, and there’s a loving savior who, knowing all that I’ve done, and all that I will do, has chosen to love me, save me, and cover me with his grace.

Are there things in your life that you’re keeping locked up for fear of condemnation?

Are you able to fully accept the free gift of love and grace God is pouring out onto you?

Can you see who you are, outside of the things you’ve done or are doing?

Take some time today to rest in who He is. Read this passage a few times, let it soak into your heart, soul, and mind. Allow yourself to accept the fact that you are fully known and unconditionally loved.

Thank you Daddy God for seeing the deepest parts of my soul, the parts that cause me to look away in disgust, and for loving me anyway. Thank you that I don’t have to work for your love. Thank you that I can’t lose your grace. Thank you that I don’t have to live in the slavery of condemnation. Help me to see myself through your eyes. Help me to see others through the loving grace you’ve so freely given to me. Amen.

Uniquely Made… Continuing the Journey through Galatians

I believe that each person is born unique. – As a mother of two daughters, from the womb I knew that my girls were going to be different. My eldest craved veggies and let me sleep most nights; my younger one craved spicy food and chose 1:00am as the best time to jump rope with the umbilical cord. This personality difference followed them out of the womb and into their toddler years. My oldest loved to do flashcards – excited every time she got one right. My younger would try and eat the flashcards as she spied out the room for the next thing to climb on. (The scariest of which was when I found her hanging from the ceiling on the rail for the garage door.)

Today their both teenagers and though my youngest is no longer hanging from the ceiling and my oldest isn’t satisfied sitting in front of a pile of flashcards all day, the core of who they are is still very apparent. Things have matured, boundaries have been created, they’ve had to choose which character traits to soften and which to enhance. And yet still at the end of the day my youngest dreams of the next adventure she’ll get to go on and my oldest loves a great, thought provoking lesson. Created wonderfully unique.

Just like each one of us have opportunities to grow, mature, and learn, Paul is showing the Galatians that though he is still the same person, everything has changed.

Galatians 1.11-24

I love how this passaged is preceded with the statement, “If I were still trying to please man I would not be a servant of Christ.”

Paul had spent years with the passion and zeal he had had from the womb directed at all the wrong things. He had been focused on man’s gospel – on the Jewish law and traditions to save him. He was trying to follow each and every rule given (pleasing man), and demanding that everyone else do the same. Being so caught up in doing what was ‘right’ Paul was blinded by the fact that he was so very ‘wrong’.

I can imagine Paul as a youth. Questioning everything. Demanding the truth. Chastising anyone who thought differently than he did. Passionate, convicted, strong, focused. He had the determination, tenacity, and laser focus to not only get an A in the class, he would get 100%. It was that God-given passion that was exactly what was needed in order for Paul to be able to stand up against 2000 years of tradition. That very passion that could look the Pharisees in the eyes to say, “You are killing these people, and I’m not going to stand by and watch it happen!” The same passion that once set out to kill the church was now it’s strongest advocate.

So if Paul didn’t change what did? His perspective.

I love the image of scales falling from Paul’s eyes when Ananias prayed for him. (Acts 9.9-19) It’s such a beautiful metaphor. Paul’s whole life was changed because his eyes were opened to the truth; a truth that gave him a 180° shift in his perspective. He was now able to channel all that passion and energy into bringing freedom to the very people he had once sought to enslave.

Looking back on my life, the things I’ve learned, the experiences that have changed and shaped me, I can see how each season of my life has shaped and changed the way I see things. My perspective at 35 is so very different than it was at 15 and will hopefully be very different than when I’m 55. This realization makes me ask myself several questions…

What are those things that I’m holding onto so tightly that in 20 years I’ll wish I’d released them? How does my perspective need to change in order to show me my blind spots? What parts of me am I fighting that God has actually created in me to be unique?

Take some time this week to sit with your Creator and ask Him to show you how you were created unique. Looking back on your life, look at the patterns you may have had. Are you adventurous, studious, quiet, outspoken, artsy, nerdy, friendly… – Embrace who you are. Look at the beauty inside of you; acknowledge the fingerprints of your Daddy God that run through your DNA. Ask Him to show you areas in which you need a perspective change. What are areas in your life you need to release the very thing you’ve been enslaved to?

Rest in Him arms. Rest in His peace. Breathe in deep the air of His live-giving Spirit of freedom and grace. Let it flow over you as He whispers, “I love you my dear precious one.”

Who’s Approval Are You Seeking?

My thoughts on Galatians 1.1-10

From the very beginning of this letter Paul appears to be very deliberate. Choosing even the words in his greeting carefully, always directing people back to the grace of Christ – the message of the gospel.

Taking only a few verses to say hello, he gets right to the point of why he’s writing – something pivotal is being distorted. Something that is at the core of who they are is in a vulnerable position. Paul needs to remind the people of Galatia (he needs to remind us) of the truth.

Like all things in life, you cannot change what you do not acknowledge. Sometimes we need people in our lives that are there to point out the things we do not see. We need people in our lives to remind us of the reality of the truth when the lies seem so convincing and true. This is what Paul is doing. He’s showing the people of Galatia the deception; he is telling them that there are liars out, fabricators of truth, who want to deceive them. People whom, in the words of Paul, should ‘be accursed’ for all they are trying to do.

And Paul doesn’t stop there; he goes to the root of the temptation – the lure of the deception. He looks at the heart of the church of Galatia and point out their blind spot so that they not only stand firm against this deception they are facing today, but that they are able to stand strong against anything that would come between them and an intimate relationship with God through the grace of Christ.

Paul addresses the approval factor. That thing inside of each one of us that longs to be loved, accepted, and cherished, not for the things we do, but for who we are. That built in part of us that embraces the praises and ‘attaboys’. It’s the same part of us that hides those things that bring us shame and pushes us away from those we most long to connect with.

Let’s step back and take a minute to consider the last verse in this passage: “If I were still trying to please man I would not be a servant of Christ.” These words may appear to be harsh words of judgment. Yet, they really are a simply a statement of truth.

I remember early on in my academic career, I was young, had two children that I was trying to homeschool in elementary school, all the while trying to keep my house in order. Many nights I would stay up late after everyone was in bed, only to wake up a few hours later, trying to grab a couple of hours of study time before everyone was awake again. (Coffee was my best friend during these days.) My motivation, my heart, my passion, the thing that drove me to those crazy hours was my focus on doing the best I could, knowing that one day my transcript would be examined by a board of strangers who would determine my fate into graduate school. In the back of my head throughout my days, as I planned family events, play dates for my girls, even considering what meals we’d eat, I always asked the question – will this sacrifice my grades. I was driven by the approval of an unknown board of people, knowing without their approval I wouldn’t get what I really wanted – entrance into graduate school.

Each one of us has something like this, something that is driving our daily lives, our priorities, and our passions. For some this may be a degree, for others its a friendship, an image, a persona that has consumed their identity. What Paul is trying to get through to the people of Galatia, and what God is trying to get through to us today, is that thing that is driving your approval is the very thing that you are serving, whether consciously or not.

As we get further into Galatians you’ll see examples where the approval of man has interfered with the truth. And as a result, it takes people away from intimacy with God.

Take a moment to ask yourself what’s driving you? Who’s or what approval are you longing for? Is it driving you closer to the grace of Jesus or further from his embrace? Are you seeing yourself more clearly or do you feel like you are loosing your identity?

Ask God to show you today how loved you are by Him. Ask Him for His approval. Ask Him for His grace filled eyes to overwhelm your every move today, and to give you a glimpse into what He sees. He loves you more than you could ever imagine. And better yet, He loves you for the simple reason that you are His. You are beautifully and wonderfully made, by Him, through Him and in Him.

Rest in His peace today, precious dear one.

Galatians Overview

Now I’m not a scholar, nor am I a historian by any means, and yet the heart and passion of Paul toward this sweet church of Galatia, resonates throughout this letter. It’s as if he’s crying out in love shouting, “Move! Run! The train is coming! You are going to die! Do you not see that you have strayed so far into the tracks!?!”

Anyone who has had to watch a parent, a child, or a loved one, making life decisions that were ultimately destroying them, understands the heart of Paul in this book. Paul addresses the people of Galatia as ‘my little children’, saying he yearns for them like a mother in childbirth. The passion of Paul throughout this letter is completely understandable when you realize that he sees the train coming while those playing on the track seem oblivious, some even choosing to pull others onto the deadly track as well. Even more evil are those who are manipulating and deceiving people into thinking the only option for life is to be on the deadly train track.

It was once said to me if something is only 99% true then it is false. A joke from my youngest daughter is the easiest way for my brain to think about it.

A man walks into a bar and asks for some H₂O, his buddy sees how much his friend is enjoying his drink so he says, “Can I have some H₂Otoo?” then he dies.

The humor is in the play on words, with the bar tender replacing the word ‘too’ with 2, making what would have been a refreshing drink into poison. (If you didn’t get it, the humor’s probably lost by now.) The point of the joke was that H₂O₂ is the chemical compound for hydrogen peroxide, not water. Distorting something by the smallest increment can completely change it from truth into a lie. On the outside water and hydrogen peroxide look very similar, its not until the man in the joke drinks it, that he realizes the fatal mistake.

In this letter Paul addresses just such a thing when he realizes that people are taking the live-giving truth of the gospel and altering it, ever so slightly, creating a poison that will ultimately kill people. It’s no wonder he comes across strong, at one point saying he wished those who had distorted the truth would ‘emasculate’ themselves. In some translations it says, mutilate, or cut off. Whatever word you want to put there, the point remains the same: Paul is so frustrated with the venomous poison that has distorted the simple truth of the gospel that he wants those who continue to teach the lie to die for what they have done to those he loves so deeply.

In addition to Paul’s passion to save people, is the sweet, simple truth of the gospel. The reality of life with Christ and the freedom that comes with resting in who He is. There’s a freedom in this short letter that brings with it, peace, trust, contentment, grace and love… I hope that in reading Galatians, you too will find these things. :0 )

Questions I’ve been asking myself… and continue to ask…

What in your life has been altered ‘ever so slightly’, that it has changed from life-giving to death?

Do you have people like Paul in your life that can scream out to you and yell, “Get off the tracks before you die?” People that you are willing to be vulnerable enough with to open up and show the grungy grimy stuff as well as the sweet smelling stuff? Why or why not?

Are you allowing God to be the one to replace the lies with His truth, or are you holding onto the lies because they are the most comfortable thing you know? Are you willing to hear the truth?