What Really Matters

If it matters to you, it matters to God.

I heard someone say that recently, and it got me thinking. Then I heard him say it again a few months later, and now it really has me thinking.

When I was in high school, I loved to play sports. I played year-round. I had some great coaches, and, because I attended a Christian high school, they each loved God. The coach I had for most of my years was Carl Woodhouse. I guess he probably coached me through the majority of the sports. He was a great guy.

One season, I remember we had a different coach. He was kind of a serious man. I can remember it like it was today, when once, in response to we girls wanting to pray for a victory before the game, he said, “Girls, I’m not sure that God really cares if we win or lose.” Now, I know what he was trying to say… he was trying to emphasize to us that win or lose, we needed to play and interact with the other team in a way that would honor God. But the fact that I still remember that incident, tells me that what he said made a lasting impact on my life. For me, the impact was putting the question in my mind of, “Just how much do the little things matter to God?”

I’ve gone through life thinking that maybe God doesn’t really care about us getting that perfect parking spot. (Still not sure on that one.) Maybe it doesn’t really matter too much in light of the universe if I go to the movie tonight, or the softball game. Maybe it isn’t significant that I like to sit and watch the sunset.

But, what if we’ve made a mistake in the Church for all these years separating things into the categories of spiritual and secular. Big and small. Significant and insignificant. I’m not sure we always get the right things in the right boxes anyway. My coach was saying that a win was somehow a secular thing, and thus less important. Now, I don’t have this all sorted out yet, but what if it is more true that what matters to me, actually matters to God? If indeed we are living with the very presence of God in us, then are we as believers really able to create any other category than spiritual?

I’m not talking about walking around in some religious stupor. But what if we were to realize that with God, there is no “without God”, really? Could we find a special joy in doing the things that before we thought of as purely obligatory? What if buying clothing for our child is somehow as much a part of what God wants us to do as buying clothing for an orphan or missions agency? What if going on vacation, we could enjoy the sense of God’s presence that helps us to see everything as from Him and in Him. So, we could find as much of the reality of His presence in a cabin in the mountains (with a nearby stream, my husband would add) as we do at a conference or on a missions trip? Not that all those things aren’t good things for us to do, but what if we could somehow find a similar sense of joy and fulfillment in the former?

If this is true, that what matters to me, matters to God, then we have some thinking to adjust. Serving up dinner could be as significant as serving on the church board. Laughing with my children might just beat out singing in the choir. And if that parking space really did matter to me, it might just make it important to God.

I suppose this could be a paradigm shift, at least for my generation and for those raised in the church. If we get a hold of this one, and it just could change our lives.

A Quiet Heart

“I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the LORD In the land of the living.” Psalm 27:13

“Heavenly” Surprise

Do you know sometimes God just likes to surprise us with things. He does it just for pleasure—I think maybe His as much as ours. I forget that sometimes…I guess that is what makes it a surprise when it happens.

So, this is really my friend Deb’s story, but I’ll have to do my best to tell it. Deb and I share something in common… neither of us has a list of dreams. You know, things on our mind that we’ve wished for all your life. One day, when pressed to answer the question, “What is your dream?”, Deb, with only moments to complete the assignment, thought hard, and with nothing else to put, and in a slight sense of “well, okay, I’ll just write anything down”,  wrote…

“Someday I’d like to have a painting in Sargent’s Art Gallery in the Fine Arts district in Maui.”

“There, I’ve done it.” she said to herself, as she walked toward the family meeting where she was to share her newly-thought-up dream.

Some months earlier,

Transition’s Hidden Treasure: Opportunity

I don’t know that I have a great deal of wisdom or understanding about transition, but I have recently been challenged by this:  Don’t despise transition, look for opportunity in it.

We all go through transition, somewhere or the other. Some time or another. It’s just part of life. How we go through transition is probably something that marks us as mature or not. So, the older we get, the more times we transition, the better we get at it.

We have two sons who are “transitioning”.  This past year, BJ went off to college. Transition. He’s moving from dependence to independence. This month, Ian received his undergraduate degree and began working in his first full-time engineering job. He also started grad school, and became engaged to be married. He’s moving from independence to interdependence. Transition…whoo, transition!

Then there are times when something we are involved in goes through transition… our home, our workplace, our church, relationships or another significant place to which we give of yourself. Eric Johnson says, “When you have a problem in front of you, there is also a promise right in the middle of it.”

How Great a Father’s Love

[These are thoughts about my father, Charles Earley, I wrote for his memorial service in 2008. I just thought I would share them with you.]

I have met many people who have a hard time really feeling loved by God because they didn’t have the privilege that I have had in an earthy father that has been so loving.

Ever since, well, forever, I have had a real sense of Daddy’s love for me. Of course, I am his favorite daughter …….. named Sara Jane (family joke). He was so good at showing his love to me. Even in adulthood, when he and Mom would come to visit, or we would go to visit them, I was always met with a huge, 6-foot-5 hug from Dad. He was always so glad to see me. Always a hug. Always a smile. Always an expression of his pure delight in being together again.

Hmmm

Just sitting here “wondering” when it will get “quiet” again.

Life Gets Busy Sometimes

If any one is wondering, no, I haven’t fallen off the face of the earth, it’s just that life gets busy sometimes. It has crossed my mind several times since my last post, “when will I write again?”… well, maybe soon. I’ve had some thoughts over the last few weeks, but nothing to really sit and write about…and I have been spending my time in other ways. Enjoying family and friends, eating favorite foods, a bit of travel, and an honest-to-goodness week off.

So, more will come the way of my blog as it comes to me and I have time again to write. I’m thankful for what these weeks have held.