"Forget about whether or not others will be grateful for your selfless service or whether they will even notice it. As God's beautiful woman, you don't do what you do to get anything: You do what you do because of who you are, because of the person God is making you into – a virtuous woman, a woman who is beautiful in His eyes! Selfless service is the greatest beauty of all. It's the beauty of our Lord!"

[excerpt from chapter 9 of Beautiful In God's Eyes, by Elizabeth George ] 

“Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.”

It’s wonderful, isn’t it? The way people can have such an affect on other people. There are a million different ways we can make a happy difference in the life of someone else. It happens every day. And if there’s one thing that consistently makes a difference in people’s lives, it’s music.

Music is a universal joy-bringer. It comforts, it encourages, it makes us smile and laugh, and sometimes it helps us cry. When it comes to Christian music, it helps us remember where we’re going and Who is taking us there. And behind the music are the writers, the musicians, and finally the singers, who spread the song messages through CDs, radio, TV, and concerts from one city to the next. Through this they are changing lives, and changing the world.

Maybe that’s why I like concerts so much.

At one event recently, while giving change, swiping credit cards, bagging CDs, and answering more questions than I knew existed, I started to notice something. Something I hadn’t paid much attention to before. Something about the faces across the product table as people looked and talked and bought their stuff.

That something was joy.

Everyone was happy. They all had smiles. They were excited. The music made a difference in their lives and that’s why they were there.

Beautiful voices rang through the 2,000 plus-seat music hall that night, filling hearts with hope, faces with smiles, and eyes with tears (the good kind). And after the stage grew dark and silent, another scene unfolded in the lobby. Artists previously under the spotlights now stood surrounded by circles of fans and friends, posing for pictures, signing autographs, giving handshakes and hugs, and chatting for a moment with everyone who wanted to see them.

I realized they were making a difference, right there before my eyes. It was beautiful.

Having been one in the crowd many times myself, I know how much it means to just get a smile, a “thank you” for being there, a snapshot to fondly look at for years to come. It has a wondrous effect on your happy scale, something much needed in this often depressing world.

How incredible to be able to make a difference like that.

An older lady buying a poster glowed enthusiastically as she told me how much her teenage nephew “just loves the group”. She wanted it autographed and when I offered to get it done for her, she was so thrilled and grateful. And in a small way, I felt like part of the difference, too.

That night I took away a deeper sense of how much each of us can make a difference by what we do. By how we act and what we say. It might not be singing to thousands and recording albums and signing autographs, but the numbers you reach isn’t what matters.

What matters is that no matter who you are or what you do, you take whatever you have and make a difference. To make even one person smile, to make their heart lighter and their load a little easier. To remind them that God’s love and forgiveness is real and His promises faithful.

Think about the people who’ve made a difference in your life, sometimes people you didn’t even know. The power God has given us to impact the lives of everyone we meet is truly amazing. Don’t underestimate that.

YOU might just make all the difference in the world.

So there I was between the displays of shower curtains and bath accessories, fingering through the towels and deciding which one was the softest, when all of a sudden, I heard it. Laced between a mix of radio tunes I was barely aware of, my ears perked up as those opening bars wafting softly from a speaker somewhere above my head.

A smile crept over my face. My eyes grew big. (At least I think they did.)

"They're playing my song!"

I practically giggle with excitement. I'd never heard it anywhere outside of my computer.

"Do you hear that? They're playing my song!"

My mom looks at me with a question mark on her face ("What song?"). Babbling explanations in happy bliss, I grin like a goon through the first verse, and then belt along with the chorus in a key that completely denies harmony, bouncing my way through to the finish.

(Just the chorus, really…the rest pertains to love stuff that I'll leave for appreciation in another 10 years.)

Whenever I look up at the blue sky and feel the sunshine on my face, this is the song playing in my heart. It makes me think of friends and laughter and hugs and sweet things and favorite movie lines. It's the song that makes me want to throw my arms wide open and spin in circles like people do in music videos. The one that makes me smile about today like there's no tomorrow.

'Cause God gave me a life full of lemonade, and it sure is wonderful!

What does it mean to take up your cross daily and carry it?

It means to daily leave behind the world of ease, the pleasures of the flesh. To daily flee sin. To daily lay down our own desires in exchange for Christ's. To daily embrace a life of set-apart holiness that will often require doing the hard thing and going the hard way. The right way. The Jesus way.

For in dying, we live! For HE is the way, the truth, and the life. There is no way to the Father but by Him. (ref. John 14:6)

This is the ultimate goal of the Christian's life. To carry the cross and finish the race. Not by our strength, but by His. To finally hear the Father – our Father – say, "Well done, my good and faithful servant."

Are you carrying your cross today?

*photo op courtesy of friend D.A.

And if THIS is God’s perfect will for me at this moment, can I not thank Him for it? If this is precisely where He knows I must be in order to know Him more fully and glorify Him with my life, how can I complain? Do I really think I know my needs better than the all-knowing, all-loving Creator of the universe knows them?

I was having one of those days….one of those days where the sun is drowned out by the rain, your deepest longings seem destined to remain unrequited, and the present circumstances feel trying indeed. This blog post by Abigail Paul was exactly what I needed to hear…

Read: THIS is the will of God

 "The sovereign God wants to be loved for Himself and honored for Himself, but that is only part of what He wants. The other part is that He wants us to know that when we have Him we have everything."

- A.W. Tozer

"Our life is full of brokenness – broken relationships, broken promises, broken expectations. How can we live with that brokenness without becoming bitter and resentful except by returning again and again to God's faithful presence in our lives?"

-Henri Nouwen

God is able to keep us from falling- He holds us tight in His hand, and nothing in all creation can separate us from His love. God's sovereign, sustaining grace is always with us, always lifting us up and filling us with power to live for Him.

And how can we trust this promise? Not because of who we are—frail and failing—but because of who God is.

God is our glorious, majestic, powerful God, author of life and king of the universe. The Bible not only speaks of the loving promises of God, but of all His divine power that will accomplish those promises for us who believe.

"To Him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before His glorious presence without fault and with great joy—to the only God our Savor be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen."

-Jude 1:24-25

[ from The Daily Verse Online ]

"Some men came and told Jehoshaphat, 'A vast Army is coming against you from Edom, from the other side of the Sea.[...]Alarmed, Jehoshaphat resolved to inquire of the Lord, and he proclaimed a fast for all Judah. The people of Judah came together to seek help from the Lord; indeed, they came from every town in Judah to seek him."

I was reading through 2 Chronicles in my personal devotions, and was struck by this story related in chapter 20 . Namely, I was struck by King Jehoshaphat's response to this terrifying news. Naturally, he was alarmed; there was a big army coming that was bent on destroying his beloved people. Yet, what does the text say he did?

Resolved to inquire of the Lord.

It doesn't say that he threw up his hands in despair, "Oh no! What am I going to do? How will we ever defend ourselves? We'll all be wiped out!" He didn't tear out his hair or cry loudly. He didn't call for his advisers and wise men or ring up his best friend. He didn't send a panicked message to hire troops from another country, as so many kings had done before him.

No, "he resolved to inquire of the Lord", first and foremost. Not second or third, but first. 

I regret that too often I have not followed the wise example of Jehoshaphat. Problems arise, gloom appears on the horizon, and in the first moments I crease my head with worry and cry tears in my pillow. I wonder what I can do to fix things, and I look everywhere for help – everywhere except to God.

After all the people came together, Jehoshaphat prayed a prayer, and he told the Lord exactly how things were.

"For we have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon you."

We have no power. Our eyes are you. This should be our response to trouble. To cry out to God, to seek Him and say from our hearts, "I am helpless! I need you!"

And what happened to the people of Judah? God came through in an amazing way! I believe they were blessed in victory because they made God their first and only resort. God's deliverance was so marvelous that all the countries around stood up and took notice.

I have learned in my own life that no matter the problem, great or small, going to God as a first response reaps not only peace of the heart and mind, but a much better solution than provided elsewhere. God may direct us to other places and other people, but it's vital to seek Him, first and foremost. It is then that His wonders are most powerfully displayed.

So the next time you're facing a challenge like King Jehoshaphat, remember his first response. And let it be yours.

It has become clearer that God being glorified and God being enjoyed are not separate categories. They relate to each other not like fruit and animals, but like fruit and apples. Apples are one kind of fruit. Enjoying God supremely is one way to glorify him. Enjoying God makes him look supremely valuable.

—

God created me -and you – to live with a single, all embracing, all-transforming passion – namely, a passion to glorify God by enjoying and displaying his supreme excellence in all the spheres of life. Enjoying and displaying are both crucial. If we try to display the excellence of God without joy in it, we will display a shell of hypocrisy and create scorn or legalism. But if we claim to enjoy his excellence and do not display it for others to see and admire, we deceive ourselves, because the mark of God-enthralled joy is to overflow and expand by extending itself into the hearts of others. The wasted life is life without a passion for the supremecy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples.

—

We waste our lives when we do not pray and think and dream and plan and work toward magnifying God in all spheres of life. God created us for this: to live our lives in a way that makes him look more like the greatness and the beauty and the inifite worth that he really is. [...] This is what it means to be created in the image of God. We are meant to image forth in the world what he is really like.

- taken from Don’t Waste Your Life, by John Piper

Being wondrously gifted with a concert ticket recently, I found myself in a huge arena with a prime view of the artists' offstage seating. I am not ashamed to admit that this resulted in me watching more of what was happening in the dim off the stage than in the spotlights on the stage. Many beautiful moments blossom when no one is looking.

I'm glad I was looking.

One of the guys I know had his lovely wife and two darling little girls with him. It was a happy time for them; the travel schedule makes their days together that much more important, and 3-year-old Emma was all daddy's girl. There were many familiar people around, a few other children, and mommy and grandma were only a few seats away at any given time.

But daddy was the only person who seemed to matter to Emma.

The only place she wanted to be was in his lap, with his strong arms around her, leaning her head against his chest, or standing cheek to cheek as he sang along in her ear. She was blissfully happy. Contented just to be with him and take in the view from his perspective.

On the occasion that she ventured off to sit with someone else or dance to the music, she was always back in no time, clambering over him in gleeful little smiles. The sweet innocence of her affection and trust was only matched by the quiet sense of protection and tenderness exuded by her daddy, who splashed her with gentle cuddles and the occasional soft kiss in her blond hair. 

They were so distractedly preoccupied with each other, and yet, present in the happenings. The glow of love between them melted my heart into a pool of sweet nothingness before the second song breached the opening bars. I could hear those singers another time. Witnessing love in action is worth missing any lyric that attempts describing it.

There was something so fresh and precious about this daddy and his little girl. If I could have, I would've scooped them up and saved time in a bottle, just so I couldn't forget. I hope I don't forget. 

I wonder…am I like her?

Do I love my heavenly daddy the way little Emma loves her earthly daddy? With that kind of childish abandon and delight, those traits that become so elusive as the timeline of life slips by, and we put away "childish things".

As she displayed so naturally, does my attention revolve around desiring His presence, holding His hand, and hearing His voice whispering in my ear? Or am I distracted, running off to play with my friends, and looking to fill my need for love and protection in other places?

Her daddy had kept a watchful eye over his sweet treasure wrapped in a white sweater and blue jeans. My heavenly daddy, who knows the very hairs of my head, is keeping watch over me with eyes of love and care as one of His redeemed. One of His children. One of His treasures.

I don't feel like a treasure. I'm the one who got the gift, after all.

But I think it makes my heavenly daddy the happiest when I am close. When I come running to meet Him. When I clamber over Him in childish glee. When I jabber all kinds of nonsense in His ear, or when I just sit and listen to His gentle voice speaking peace to my soul.

To be blissfully happy and contented to view the world from His perspective…To be so preoccupied with Him that everything else is just second thought. Why can't I always be that way?

Sometimes I think we are afraid to love God so freely, so deeply, so lavishly, so obviously. That to look at Him and smile because you see Him smiling back somehow cheapens His glory or His holiness with irreverence.

No, we were not meant to stand afar from God. Being closer only makes the awe grow greater.

If I could just love Him a little more like Emma loves her daddy.

Freely, deeply, lavishly. Obviously.

I'll try. Because He needs to know…the world needs to know…I'm Daddy's girl.

This is what's been on my mind and heart with the chilly arrival of December, the approach of Christmas, and what it all means…

He was born in Bethlehem they say,
There was a star to light the path to where He lay.
Rich or poor they came from far and near,
Cause they’d all heard the reason He was here.

He was the Son God sent to one and all.
Put on this earth to hang there on that cross.
Born to die so we could live.
He had the birthday, we got the gift.

They wrapped him up with gentle hands.
God hoped the world would understand.
Eternal life we shall receive.
And all that He asks in return is that we just believe.

He was the Son God sent to one and all.
Put on this earth to hang there on that cross.
Born to die so we could live.
He had the birthday, we got the gift.

There’s no way in this world we could repay
The miracle He gave us on that day.

On our Savior's birthday, we got the gift…