Category: Thoughts

Posted in Thoughts from School, Thoughts from Scripture

Faithful Love

Posted on by Ann B. Hibbard

Today I ran across a thought that was started nearly two years ago. I don’t know why I stopped writing it. I don’t even really know what was going on in life at the time. All I have now is a few paragraphs and a date stamp to let me know when I started writing. That was enough to nudge me to go dig back in my journals for the source thoughts. (And that was enough to remind me just how valuable journaling is — a practice I do not do consistently enough and have been very lax on lately. But that’s another post for another time.) And it was enough to let me know that I needed this message this morning, just as I needed it then!

On that particular morning, I was reading through Psalm 143 as a devotional. The first few verses inspired some great personal prayer time. I read the whole psalm, but then came back to just pray and ponder through the first half. If you read those first few verses, you can imagine that it wasn’t necessarily a prayer of praise as much as a prayer of longing and aching. I didn’t really feel pursued by a specific enemy, but a lot of challenges weighed down my heart that morning. The first few verses of the psalm helped me turn that weight into prayers — and helped remind me who the God I serve really is.

At the time, the second half of the psalm didn’t really jump out at me. I was caught up in the first half. In the prayer. In the ache. In the concerns. But then I had an interruption in the flow and needed to walk away for a few minutes. It wasn’t long, but it was long enough for me to redirect from the journaling thoughts. To get caught up in other things, even for just a few minutes. So, when I came back, it was as if I was starting afresh.

Frequently, it can be hard to come back from interruptions in my morning reading, but that particular morning was different. The interruption ended up being exactly what I needed. Because when I came back, I didn’t return to the first half of Psalm 143. Instead, my eyes jumped ahead to the second half, starting with verse 7. That verse fit with my earlier prayer, but as I kept reading, I found a new prayer.

Answer me quickly, Lord; my spirit fails. Don’t hide your face from me, or I will be like those going down to the Pit. Let me experience your faithful love in the morning, for I trust in you. Reveal to me the way I should go because I appeal to you. Rescue me from my enemies, Lord; I come to you for protection. Teach me to do your will, for you are my God. May your gracious Spirit lead me on level ground. Psalm 143:7-10 CSB

My journal records that I picked up a couple of other translations and wrote down the first part of verse eight in each of them:

Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love… NIV

May I hear about your loyal love… NET

At first glance, it seems a little passive: “let me;” “let the morning;” “may I hear.” But it’s really not. This isn’t simply a statement of, “Oh yeah, I should know that He loves me.” Instead, it’s a tangible, engaging action on the part of God to tune our ears to the truth of His love. To meet us wherever we are in life, even when life feels rough, and actively bring us the news of His faithful love. His loyal love. His unfailing love. Love that we don’t just hear about but get to radically experience day in and day out, no matter our circumstances.

Love that He reminds us of in the most beautiful ways, even when we have drifted away from paying attention.

After pouring out his heart to the Lord so many centuries ago, David needed that reminder. I apparently needed it, too, that morning a couple of years ago when I was struggling so deeply.

And today it was yet again a beautiful reminder. God’s love for us isn’t a passive concept, hovering in the background as an idea that we can pull out when we need a warm fuzzy. It is the source of our trust in Him. It is the truth, reality, and light that guides our path. It is the power that rescues us and covers us with protection. It is our instructor in how to accomplish the will of God. It is the grace that leads us on level ground.

And God actively ensures that we are reminded of the truth of His love.

What a way to go into the day! May that be the message your heart and mind hear as you progress through today: God’s love is ready for you to experience. What a truth!

Posted in Thoughts from Creation, Thoughts from Life

What Are You Creating?

Posted on by Ann B. Hibbard

Last week I asked what you were reading. Today, I have a similar question: what are you creating?

The more I learn about what it means to be made in the image of God, the more I see creativity shine as a beautiful example. He is so very creative, not only in the way He fashioned the universe and mankind, but also in the way He has engaged with His creation throughout its — and our — existence. There seems to be no limit to the discovery of new aspects of His creativity!

And the most beautiful part of it all is that He shares creativity with us. Because we are made in His image, we have endless avenues for exploring creativity. Often, though, we miss it because we miss the true definition of creativity.

It’s easy to connect creativity specifically to the arts. Someone who can paint or draw or sculpt or carve or assemble beautiful works of art. Someone who can produce beautiful music. Someone who can design patterns or create beautiful things with fabric or yarn. Those are the creative people.

But we don’t all fit into those categories. And even those who dabble in the arts might not consider themselves truly creative. Everything I do craft-wise is sourced from the idea or pattern of someone else. Am I truly creative if I’m simply copying or following directions using a skill I’ve learned?

The answer is yes. And I’m learning that everyone has some measure of creativity.

Yours might be in how you relate to people. Or cook a meal. Or mow a lawn. You might not be able to paint a solid color evenly on a plain board to save your life, but if someone needs to know the best way to fence off their back yard, you’re the person to call. You might not be able to sew a straight seam no matter how hard you try, but when you tell a story, others are immediately captivated.

Creativity may be the ability to see a new topic to research. It might be the enjoyment of pulling out decorations for every season. It could be knowing just what to plant each season to create a yard that brings joy to others.

It might also be simply following directions to accomplish something. That’s me, and I have long believed that meant I wasn’t creative. And yet, when I follow directions and something good comes from it, even if it’s following directions for a task I’m not really great at, I’m exercising my creativity. It could be as simple as following a recipe to produce food that tastes good, even though cooking is not something I enjoy. It could be the act of enjoying the sight of the Norfolk pine I all but killed years ago, now flourishing and growing so tall that I can’t help but wonder where I’ll put it to protect it from the week of cold we might get this winter!

Right now, I’m working on two sweaters. I’ve never made sweaters before, but I’m currently crocheting one and knitting the other. I’m also crocheting a blanket. I’m strictly following existing patterns, using skills other people have taught me. Even the colors are some my daughter helped me pick out and pair together in an effort to use up some of our yarn stash. It feels very uncreative. It feels more like a simple task I have chosen for the purpose of helping my brain and body relax. It was hard to find the patterns. Hard to come up with the ideas. Creativity isn’t supposed to be that hard, is it?

And yet, I’m creating. In my own way. And it is nourishing me.

My challenge to you is to rethink creativity in your own life. Stop and evaluate the things you’re doing. What brings nourishment? What spurs you to learn more about yourself? What draws you closer to your Creator?

If you can’t answer those questions, perhaps your next challenge is to stop and ask your Creator to help you see how you can image Him through creativity. Let Him open your mind to what is possible. To what fits with how He created you.

Then come back and answer the question: what are you creating? By answering and sharing that answer with those around us, we might just help others see creativity in themselves, possibly in ways they never imagined!

Posted in Thoughts from Scripture

Motivation? Or Depth?

Posted on by Ann B. Hibbard

Have you ever noticed how much we crave motivation? We have motivational speakers. Motivational books and articles. Motivational posters. Sharp, motivational statements plastered on t-shirts, coffee mugs, desk decor, and more.

And for the Christians in the group, what are our favorite Bible verses? Yep, the peppy motivational ones that we can spout off like a cheer at a ball game.

Here’s the thing, though. Those verses always come in context. And the context is always connected to some sort of action.

I’ve been spending a good bit of time with Paul’s letters lately. I’ll be honest, they are not my favorite books of the Bible. My brain doesn’t work like Paul’s, and it sometimes takes a lot for me to process what he’s actually saying. But, over the years I’ve become increasingly familiar with his letters, and I’ve gotten a better grasp of how the various ideas flow together in a coherent thought.

You see, that’s been one of my challenges. There’s always been a tendency to focus in on individual concepts from Paul’s letters, and that has made it hard for me to see how it all fits together. But it does all fit together, and there is a common theme in many of the letters. A common overarching outline that helps us out.

Paul frequently starts his letters with general concepts: This is who God is. This is what Christ has done. This is what the church is supposed to be.

But then there’s usually a shift: This is what all of these concepts mean for us. How we should respond. What we have to do.

We like the peppy motivation. We like the big, grand statements. We like the picture of who God is and what we’re supposed to be. Go motivation!

Our problem is that we like to live in the motivational mode. We don’t really like to be reminded that any motivation has follow-up. Requires action. Demands that we take steps to make use of the motivation. Getting pumped up by peppy motivation is fun. Doing the hard work to turn that pep into action…not always so fun.

But it’s so very necessary.

We will never truly love our neighbor unless we take the beautiful statements in Scripture about love and turn them into reality in the hardest places.

We will never find unity in the church unless we take to heart God’s commands to set aside our idols and our preferences and our heroes and surrender fully and completely to the Lord Jesus Christ and Him alone.

We will never see abundant growth, either in ourselves or in the kingdom of God, unless we do the work of being rooted in Scripture and truth and sacrifice and surrender.

I’ll be very honest and vulnerable right now and admit that I’m weary and feeling quite battered. I’m in a place where pithy motivation, even from random Bible verses, is failing utterly and completely. I need solidity and depth. I need to know that the hard work actually will have a purpose. And I can’t find it if all I have is a peppy motivational approach to the Word of God. I have to take off those glasses and look at it all for real. I have to see the depths of truth in both the grand statements and the calls to action.

I can only find that, even when looking to Scripture, if God Himself is my focus. I might get in trouble for saying this, but even His Word and all of the beauty found there will fall flat if it doesn’t point me to the living God Himself. If it doesn’t direct my attention to Him and to walking in His will and His purposes. I know too many people who claim to love the Bible and check all of its boxes but who completely miss God Almighty Himself. They completely miss a true relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

There is action beyond motivation. There is relationship that takes surrender and work. Yes, I’m weary. But I’ll only be strengthened if my focus is on Him and my action centered around my relationship with Him — not chasing after motivational pep.

Posted in Thoughts from Life

From the Middle

Posted on by Ann B. Hibbard

I got a chuckle the other day as I read some social media posts from a first-year homeschool mom. She really is doing well, it seems. She’s been able to process wisdom from more experienced homeschool parents, and she’s implementing that wisdom well. But, there were a few spots where I still wanted to say, “Bless your heart,” or “Oh, honey!” You know…those lovely Southern phrases we pull out when we just don’t know what else to say.

At the same time, though, I applaud her for openly sharing her learning journey. So often, we hear from the veterans only. Those who have such a wealth of experience to share. And their wisdom is so incredibly valuable! But it can also be like drinking from a fire hydrant, especially if it’s decades of experience being handed down to someone just getting started — someone who actually does need the time to develop before they can truly handle that full slate of resources.

I know I’ve been guilty of sharing advice with other people this way, whether in homeschooling or ministry or parenting or any other area where I have a smackerel of experience. It can be…a lot.

But there’s a space that rarely gets shared from. That space right in the middle. The place where we have passed the idealism of the original thought, idea, or inspiration, but we haven’t yet seen how it turns out. We don’t yet know if our attempts will actually work. We have no idea if the advice is sound. And, to be truly honest, we can often find ourselves pretty disillusioned and discouraged. Who wants to share any of that?

Honestly, I think we’re the wisest in that middle space. We’ve been hit with reality a few times, and it illuminates the flaws in our initial idealistic inspiration. We’re encountering the holes that need to be filled; we’re being stopped in our tracks by problems that need to be solved; we’re seeing ideas that need to be revisited and revised. We still have no idea what the outcome will be and what additional errors or useless actions we’ll process along the way. But we’re gaining the tools we need to evaluate each step of the journey. And we’re getting better at it as we go.

That’s a hard space to share, to be honest. It doesn’t sell books. It doesn’t “preach” or enable one to gain any sort of platform. It has no confirmation of validity.

Even so, it’s where the vast majority of us exist. Honestly, I was in “the middle” of homeschooling until the moment my youngest finished his last high school requirement. And even then, I didn’t really know if I’d succeeded in equipping all three of them well. Well into my “retirement,” I’m still processing what did and did not work — what I’d do differently if I began again armed with the knowledge I have now. (And I have no idea if the “different” would actually work better.)

Currently, I’m in the middle of figuring out what life looks like as a “retired” homeschool teacher who is floundering through multiple ill-fitting jobs and just trying to figure out what’s next. What does it mean to be the mom of adults? Am I building the relational skills I’ll need to possibly become a mother-in-law someday? How are we as a family handling the challenge of staying connected in a new and different way, building on the foundation we laid when we all lived under the same roof? How is my approach to employment now paving the way for what I’m supposed to do with the rest of my life?

The middle is squishy. It’s gray. It’s confusing. It’s uncertain.

Yet it is a place that needs to be shared. It is more important to talk about the middle than it is to rave about cool new ideas or share advice from places of success and completion. We need to see each other in the middle. We need to know how someone else is solving problems. Or filling holes, or revising ideas. Or restarting completely when it all falls apart.

It’s hard to share from the middle, but maybe that’s one of the things I need to be learning. Maybe that’s a space of vulnerability I need to be willing to express.

How about you? Are you in the middle on anything right now? How about we meet each other there and walk through the journey together? It might make the completion even more victorious!

Posted in Faith Nuggets, Thoughts, Thoughts from Scripture

Going On

Posted on by Ann B. Hibbard

I’m burdened right now about the way so many churches are dying. And so many are not shining the light of Jesus well. In the process of filtering through old posts to see what to republish, I found this one that reminds me why our light is dwindling: we’re not “going on.” May that change! May we never be complacent in this time of ease, but may we be built up, may we go on, and may we once again see true increase as we celebrate people moving from death to life!

We’ve all heard the stories of the church growing dramatically. Sometimes the growth results from gospel being heard for the first time. Other growth comes in response to persecution. Still other growth begins when hearts that have been simply going through the motions are suddenly revived.

I love hearing – and experiencing – any such growth stories. But, my favorite stories remain the earliest ones. The biblical ones. Like this one:

So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria enjoyed peace, being built up; and going on in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it continued to increase. Acts 9:31 NASB

Do you see the amazing information packed into this verse?

  1. The church enjoyed peace.

    This was really the first time of peace for the church. It started under mild persecution, as the Apostles were threatened by the Jewish leaders who thought their problems had ended when they got rid of Jesus. Surprise!

    For the most part, though, it seems as if the persecution relaxed a bit and preaching, teaching, meeting, and growing occurred without too many issues. But, if you’ve ever been in a growing church, you know there are other issues. Internal issues. Growing pains. We see a glimpse of these issues in the argument between the Hellenistic and Jewish widows. I have a feeling that was not the only growing pain.


    Then came the massive persecution at the hands of Saul following Stephen’s martyrdom. The believers were scattered, and the gospel spread.


    Only after Saul traveled that life-changing Damascus road did peace come.


  2. Being built up.

    Consider the beginning of the chapter. Saul was trying to tear down the church. Now, the threat from Saul is gone, and it seems like the rest of the Jews have lost their steam – or that they’re more focused on Saul than the whole church.

    So, what once was being torn down is now being built up. It is interesting to note that this verb refers not to something that the church was accomplishing on their own. They were not building themselves up, but were being built up. The action of the Lord Himself accomplished this growth. He’d established His church in challenge. Now He was growing His church in peace. He acted. They received.


  3. And going on.

    This is the one I really love. The church went on, acting on what they’d learned in the time of challenge.

    So often, we see the opposite in the lives of individual Christians and churches as a whole. We band together and lean on Christ in the challenge, but when the peace comes, we relax. We separate. We do not go on, persisting in the foundation established during the challenge. Instead, we act as if those foundational behaviors are only for the times of challenge, waiting for us to return to if the need arises. But the early church had no concept of that. Perhaps it was a side effect of being established in challenge. They knew nothing else. So, they continued in what they knew, and they “continued to increase” because of it.

We often discuss emulating the early church in order to be truly biblical in our methods. I think right here is the first place we need to look. We need to choose to go on “in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit,” no matter what our circumstances.

Then, my friends – oh, then! – let’s just hang on. Because the growth will truly be glorious!

Posted in Thoughts from Life

No Perfect Code

Posted on by Ann B. Hibbard

I love getting to learn new skills. One of the skills I’ve learned over the past decade or so has been a very rudimentary understanding of a couple of coding languages. I don’t know anywhere near enough to write more than a few very basic components of code. Nor do I know how to do any major troubleshooting if something is wrong. But, I know enough to make minor tweaks and updates to existing code or to solve very basic problems.

The nice thing about code is that problems can often be fixed by adding or removing one single character. Of course, that’s also the bad thing about code. If something’s wrong, it could be off by one single character, which can be tough to find.

Either way, though, it’s objective. It’s a logic problem. Creating code and solving problems might be a headache (okay, so no “might” to that — there’s always some form of headache when it comes to coding, it’s just a matter of how big the headache is), but it’s still formulaic.

How tempting is it to try to approach life that way? To believe that we can solve anything and everything if we can just find the right button to push?

And, in all honesty, we do approach life that way. Our self-help books and marketing show this to be true.
Follow these steps and you can write and sell your book.
Choose this path, and you can achieve your dream job.
Take these supplements or follow this plan and you can get healthy and skinny.
Do this with your children and they’ll turn out brilliant and successful and perfect.

If you would just do it my way using my tips and tricks and products, everything will be just perfect.

Except it won’t. Life doesn’t work that way. Life is not code. Life is subjective and messy, and what works perfectly in one situation doesn’t work in another.

On the one hand, I like that because it gives me freedom to say, “I’m glad that works for you, but it’s just not me.” On the other hand, though, I do wish I had a formula. I wish I could just insert the right code and have everything fall into place for my husband, my children, and myself. I wish I could just follow a plan and have everything work perfectly for our church. I wish I could just say the right words in prayer and have my prayer journal be filled with answers to prayer instead of requests that seem to stubbornly stay unanswered.

There’s no perfect code, and it’s annoying. There’s no perfect motivational trick, and it’s exhausting. There’s no way to fix things, and it’s heartbreaking.

But, there’s God. There is an all-powerful, perfect, just, righteous, and holy God who is also loving and intimate and close. There’s a God who is always constant and whose character doesn’t change, but whose character includes so much creativity that He doesn’t have to act the same way twice. He can keep us surprised. Keep us, by necessity, trusting in Him.

That trust is hard sometimes. Serving a God whose creativity is that big means we cannot predict, cannot solve, cannot logic our way through the circumstances of life because His ways are too big to fit into those boxes. That’s really the essence of trust, though. Giving up our right to the ability to figure out solutions on our own. To surrender to His ability instead.

To wait. To watch. To rest. To abide.

No, there’s no perfect code. And for someone who likes to logic and checklist their way through things, that can be hard.

But it’s also good. Because creative love is better, and the love of God is the greatest of all. I’ll trust in that.

Posted in Faith Nuggets, Thoughts, Thoughts from Scripture

Leading the Leaders

Posted on by Ann B. Hibbard

Lately I’ve been working through some thoughts about leadership that will eventually make their way into coherent form. But, the foundation of the thought is this: A major message blared to youth when I was growing up revolved around how important it was to be a leader instead of a follower. And I wondered about that even then — how can you have leaders with no followers? Followers will always outnumber leaders, but there is also wisdom to be had in following. That’s a portion of what this post, written well over a decade ago, addresses, and revisiting it is helping me as I hash out the fullness of my thoughts. So, I figured I’d reshare it today. Enjoy!

The reign of Hezekiah has always thrilled me. If I had to pick a favorite king of Judah, he would be the one. After generations of sinfulness and disobedience, Hezekiah decides to do it right.

He wastes no time beginning reforms.

In the first year of his reign, in the first month, he opened the doors of the house of the Lord and repaired them. He brought in the priests and the Levites and gathered them into the square on the east. Then he said to them, “Listen to me, O Levites. Consecrate yourselves now, and consecrate the house of the Lord, the God of your fathers, and carry the uncleanness out from the holy place. 2 Chronicles 29:3-5

Where It Starts

There is something I find interesting in this story. Hezekiah instructs the priests and Levites right here in the very beginning. Yet all through the reforms, a certain theme is repeated:

But the priests were too few, so that they were unable to skin all the burnt offerings; therefore their brothers the Levites helped them until the work was completed and until the other priests had consecrated themselves. For the Levites were more conscientious to consecrate themselves than the priests. 2 Chronicles 29:34

For the king and his princes and all the assembly in Jerusalem had decided to celebrate the Passover in the second month, 3 since they could not celebrate it at that time, because the priests had not consecrated themselves in sufficient numbers, nor had the people been gathered to Jerusalem. 2 Chronicles 30:3-4

Then they slaughtered the Passover lambs on the fourteenth of the second month. And the priests and Levites were ashamed of themselves, and consecrated themselves and brought burnt offerings to the house of the Lord. 2 Chronicles 30:15

For Hezekiah king of Judah had contributed to the assembly 1,000 bulls and 7,000 sheep, and the princes had contributed to the assembly 1,000 bulls and 10,000 sheep; and a large number of priests consecrated themselves. 2 Chronicles 30:24

Do you see the progression here?

– Hezekiah initiated.
– Some of the religious leaders responded, but not all.
– The people responded in greater numbers.
– The religious leaders slowly came around, feeling convicted because of the response of the people.

There are a couple of lessons to learn from this.

First, our positions mean something! Hezekiah should not have been the initiator. The people should not have been ahead of the priests and Levites. It was the job of the priests and Levites to instruct the king and be spiritual leaders for the people. They failed and then had to play catch-up when they should have been leading.

Fortunately, others stepped up! This leads directly to the second lesson.

Don’t wait for the “right” person to act! Leaders do not always lead as they should. Sometimes they get complacent. That does not give followers an excuse. Sometimes people must be willing to motivate their leaders to action.

You might not see yourself as a leader, and that’s okay. Not everyone is a leader. But, that doesn’t excuse you from action. If you are choosing to sit around and do nothing simply because your leaders are not acting, then you are living in sin. You share a measure of responsibility with your leaders. And you are capable of instigating a change!

The priests should have been the ones to direct the king and mobilize the Levites. The Levites should have been the ones to teach the people, stirring them to action. Instead, Hezekiah pushed the priests and Levites. Then he stirred the people to action. The Levites got a more decent start than the priests, but it was only the amazing responsiveness of the people that truly lit a fire under the sluggish priests. The ones who should have started everything were the last to respond.

Where will you and I fall? May we be the first!

Originally published July, 2014
Posted in Thoughts, Thoughts from Life

Not My Strength

Posted on by Ann B. Hibbard

I’ve started three different posts this morning, but none of them were posts that lend themselves toward quick completion. So, I’ll share them…later. For today, I found this thought from nearly eleven years ago. I have only guesses about what the task was that caused such issues back then, but I know I’ve experienced this struggle many times since then. And, honestly, I frequently need this reminder to not rely on my own strength. So, today I share these “old” but still relevant thoughts with you while the “fresh” thoughts continue to percolate and find their way to completion.

Do you have one of those areas? Of course you do. We all do. That thing that, whether we like it or not, we absolutely stink at!

Yet somehow, at some point, we find ourselves having to do that very thing.

I’ve dealt with that thing in ministry. I’ve dealt with it at work. In fact, I’ve got one of those things on my work plate right now. This week it has caused me to spend several hours plodding through a still unfinished task that should have been done in under an hour. Because it’s not my strength. Because I’m not good at it.

But guess what, my friends. Even those things need to be done. And sometimes we get to be the chosen ones. For some reason, the wonderfully gifted just can’t do it this time around. So, it falls to us.

So, we do it.

As frustrating as it can be to have to tackle things that do not fall within our strengths, I believe God has a very grand purpose when He puts the jobs before us.

First, we are reminded that the strength is His, not ours. Why, oh why, do we need that reminder? But we do, don’t we? We go through daily life and rely increasingly on our own strength. Oh, my friend, our strength is so small! Even in the areas of our giftings, our strength is so very limited. And the more we limit our activities to our “natural talents,” the more even those areas of talent become a struggle.

If God is not working through us, then we’re not working successfully. Period. And when we forget that reality, God has to remind us – usually by taking us outside our comfort zones and forcing us to rely on His strength again.

Second, we understand others better. If you are a natural when it comes to working with children, you might not understand my struggle with and aversion to being involved in children’s ministry. On the other hand, if you tell me that a simple sewing pattern looks like a foreign language to you, it will blow my mind. It’s just a pattern. It’s as clear as day. Right?

Just because a task is natural to me does not mean it will be to you, and vice versa. And that’s okay. It really is. Neither of us is deficient in any way. We are not faulty or incomplete.

We say that we know that to be true – we all readily agree that different people have different talents. But, often we forget to make that knowledge a part of our everyday understanding of people. We get irritable when someone else doesn’t “get” it. And God has to put a task before us that stretches us outside our strengths to remind us to be patient with others.

I often like to complain when a task outside my strengths is put before me. But, I should instead thank God for the opportunity to stretch myself and better appreciate those who typically do the task. (And believe me, I’m very appreciative this week!) May that become our faithful response!

Originally published November, 2015
Posted in Thoughts from Others, Thoughts from Scripture

Not Alone

Posted on by Ann B. Hibbard

Some mornings, I read and have to work pretty hard to process what I’ve read. I want to study and grow and learn, but some mornings I just have to make it my goal to get the information into my head and trust that the understanding will dawn eventually.

Other mornings, though, things just jump out at me. Sometimes a lot of things, sometimes a few. But, they literally leap off the page and catch me by surprise.

Then there are days when I’m distracted and struggling for most of the reading, but one little thing still grabs at me. Reading back through my journal, I discovered an entry about one of those days. It was the first day of a new year, but the week was about halfway through — and it had been a long week already. I was tired. My shoulders were stiff with tension. And my head was not really grasping the sense of a new beginning or fresh start of any sort. On days like that, an arbitrary date on a calendar declaring, “New Year!!!” doesn’t really offer a promise that things will be truly new or good or different.

So instead of feeling celebratory, I started the day a wee bit grouchy. And then I read these words:

The psalmist insists that no one anytime, anywhere, praises the Lord alone.

The sentence came from a commentary on the Psalms entitled The Psalms: Jesus’s Prayer Book by Douglas D. Webster. I’d been reading the four-book series all during the previous year as a companion to our church reading plan, which had spent the year working slowly and steadily through the Psalms. The plan ran over just a few days into the new year, and the reading on this particular morning was Psalm 148, a sweeping song of praise encompassing the whole of creation. In fact, it’s hard to read the psalm without thinking of God’s act of creation, especially since another devotional reading that morning centered on Genesis 1.

The whole set of readings offered a powerful reminder of praise, even speaking into my grouchy, tired, cranky morning. Even so, this one little quote took me off guard.

Why?

Because it made me realize that, so often, I choose to approach praise as if I’m alone. Just me trying to figure out how to praise God in the middle of the “whatever” of my life, even if I’m with others who are doing the same thing. We’ve made our relationship with God so personal that it has become individualistic. And that leaves us feeling alone.

But we’re not. Ever. Even if there wasn’t another person around with a heart to praise our Savior, Lord, and Creator, we still wouldn’t be alone because all of creation is constantly praising Him.

We never, ever praise alone.

Whether through the laughter of my family, the songs of a congregation, or the music of wind chimes as the breeze blows around them, praise is everywhere. And I’m a part of it.

I should know this. And, deep inside, I realize I do know it. But I hadn’t really been living the knowledge. Instead, I’d been complaining because I felt alone.

The most beautiful thing about the Spirit’s instruction and illumination of God’s Word is that we become nourished even when the circumstances don’t change. My week was still long. The challenges were still there. But the reminder shifted my focus, as is evident in my journal entry for the next day. How amazing to serve that kind of God.

And to know, we’re never alone.

Posted in Thoughts from Life

Jumble

Posted on by Ann B. Hibbard

My thoughts are all jumbled up today, and it’s honestly hard to sort them out. It’s like having the pieces of a dozen puzzles all mixed up together. Or that chaos that would ensue if the multiple cones of yarn in my craft bag were to become unrolled and all knotted together.

I have a lot of thoughts, but they’re all knotted and tangled and scrambled together, and it’s hard to even find a single place to start.

That’s how life is sometimes, isn’t it? Life doesn’t let us deal with one scenario at a time, neatly and cleanly. It mixes and jumbles them all in together. It blends them to the point where it can be hard to even see their distinction. And it’s not just the problematic portions of life. Sometimes, it’s hard to find the edges of the good as we try to push through the bad. And often we feel like the task is too big to even try.

But, try we must.

So, today I’m starting with my thoughts. I’m try to find an end that I can start tugging on to see where it goes. Is it attached to that over there? What happens if I pull at this knot over here?

And wouldn’t you know, pulling is working. They’re starting to unravel a bit. They’re starting to separate and allow me to see what’s worth keeping and what’s not. In fact, by the time you actually read this post, it will probably be several weeks down the road, because several of these thoughts I’m pulling on feel like thoughts I can complete today or this week or in the coming weeks.

When life is a jumble, it’s easy to just give in to being overwhelmed by the chaos. But if we can take a few minutes to focus on one knot at a time, to narrow our focus and solve one little thing that we can, sometimes the jumble begins to make sense. It might still be huge, but maybe it will look a little less overwhelming.

What one free end, one small knot, one little and solvable problem can you focus on today? May it help you see that the jumble of life isn’t so overwhelming after all.