paravanes:meditations

(c) Deborah Evans I've spent some holidays alone. I don't always spend holidays alone, but I've spent a few alone and I will share what helped me enjoy and remember those holidays as positive landmarks in my life. I hope these ideas are helpful to you. You need a plan . You need a plan because so much of the advertising, marketing, and messaging of the culture is based on happy "family and friends" gatherings during the holidays (Thanksgiving through the New Year). Of course, all of these gatherings are not happy, joyful, or peaceful. No matter. Given all of this messaging, you need to create a space to enjoy the holiday based on your life, your priorities, and your circumstances. Your plan begins now . Allow yourself to quietly consider why you are alone during the holidays. I am not referring to psychoanalysis or deep self-therapy. Just sit quietly for a time and review the circumstances or events or your life. Perhaps you have chosen to be alone during the holi...

  Photo (c) Deborah Evans  How open are you to change? How open are you to new ways of seeing the world? How open are you to leaving something (or someone) behind and taking on something (or someone) new? How open are you to learning and practicing new habits, new priorities, and new perspectives? Salvation in Jesus Christ is about transformation. When you examine Jesus' relationship with his disciples, you see him leading and guiding and protecting them through a series of challenging, authentic, transformational experiences. You see Jesus working miracles, reaching out to the marginalized and rejected and showing God's care and concern, conflicts with the traditional religious leaders, political arrest and execution, resurrection, and ascension (moving beyond physical limitations). Almost none of this happens when Jesus is alone. What he does, he does with his disciples. Why didn't Jesus just speak to and lecture his disciples instead of leading them through these events?...

Image: Window in the kitchen of the Daggett Farm House at  Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan Photo by Deborah Evans If you are seeking to hear from God, you must rest.  What does this mean? This means you must intentionally move yourself out of emergency panic mode. This means you must determine to align your emotions with the serenity and power of God.  This means you cannot live on a wavelength of stress, uncertainty, and frustration. This means you must know beforehand God will answer your prayer for guidance. This means you will align yourself with the purpose, power, and peace of God.  You will rest your mind, body, and emotions in preparation for hearing, understanding, and believing in the guidance of God. If you want to be guided by God,  first   you must rest .  

  c) Deborah Evans "Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth."--Proverbs 27:1. Seek God's will, but insist upon nothing.  Leave the details to God.  Trust opportunities God creates for you as you walk in faith and minute by minute obedience. As a Christ follower, your purpose is to obey God and love God's will and God's way. Few people declare and decree a painful challenge or an unwanted life change. Usually, the decree or declaration-- -when it's specific --involves getting what we think we want.  God uses all types of circumstances and events to conform us to the image of Christ. Jesus said "the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name." (John 15:16) What does it mean to ask in Jesus's name? In the ancient language Jesus spoke and the gospel writer used to record Jesus's words, "in my name" meant "in my way", "in my manner", and "as representing my identity, purp...

  (c) Deborah Evans Nehemiah 8:10: "Do not grieve...the joy of the Lord is your strength." What does this mean? Read the book of Nehemiah, not a long book, if you want to understand the historical context of this statement. What can it mean for us in 2023? We were created for joy and happiness. The joy and happiness experienced in our creation was based on our close, uninterrupted connection to God. We cut that connection in the early days of humanity (see Genesis, the book of beginnings) and God restored to us the option of that connection through Jesus Christ.  As Christ followers, we can now honestly say "the joy of the Lord is my strength." What does this joy look like in our life experiences? We have the security of knowing in this life we walk a road prepared for us and will have a safe, final arrival in God's kingdom in a place made specifically for us. See John 14:2. We have the certainty of knowing we don't exist through a random process of chance, ...

  (c) Deborah Evans If you are unfamiliar with the term "Black femicide", read the article referenced below to understand what it is and why it is a public health crisis: Black Femicide: A Silent Public Health Crisis  -- from advancingkids.org Femicide is defined as an intentional killing with a gender related motivation. Why is this a crisis in the Black community? In 2022, The Guardian (UK)  reported the rate of death by homicide for Black women increased by 33% in 2020 over the previous year.. In 2020, an average of five Black women per day were murdered in the United States.(FBI statistics) Recent reports do not show a reversal of this trend. Read this Washington Post article about the lack of traction this issue has received. Most of these murders were connected to domestic, family related violence. Victims included spouses, partners, mothers, grandmothers, aunts, sisters, co-parents, ex-wives, former girlfriends, women who rejected unwanted suitors. The vast major...

  (c) Deborah Evans This quote, "what punishments of God are not gifts?" from author J.R.R. Tolkien, gives us insight into how to understand God's connection with us. The nature of God's relationship is a progressive interaction.  Even punishments that bring us closer to God's heart and closer to the image (character, submission, and obedience) of Christ are gifts of God. See Romans 8:29, I Corinthians 15:49. When we are punished by humans (parents, teachers, etc.), that punishment cannot be separated from the frustrations, irritations, unchecked anger, and shortcomings of those parents, teachers, or others. None of those appear in any punishment (corrective or directive action) taken by God because none of those shortcomings or emotional imbalances are part of God's character. They cannot be displayed or imposed by God. When we understand God's entire purpose in redemption and salvation is to make us like Jesus, to conform us to Jesus' image (personal...