The Famous One

Dennis left the AARP magazine open on the kitchen table to page 16.  There, staring at me this morning, was a sultry picture of Elizabeth Taylor in her younger years.  In a bathing suit.  One piece.  But with a good bit of top exposure for 1959, methinks.  

Underneath the photo was a little blurb referring to the book, How to Be a Movie Star: Elizabeth Taylor in Hollywood.  (Check out those chapter headings.)

What also struck me was the statement that Julia Roberts was "pulling down $20 million per film" in 2006.

We pay our stars a lot. 

We hold them up as idols and icons.  Often overlook their unrepentant sins and lifestyles.

Humans.  Like us.

Then I remembered something Mary DeMuth tweeted yesterday.  "It could be just me, but it seems Christians are extremely starstruck by other famous Christians."

It could be just me, but it seems we are often starstruck by someone or something other than the One who made the stars.

We so easily forget what the Great Celebrity has done.

Like the Israelites.  Their famous one had disappeared up a mountain.  They could not look past their earthly "star" to the One they had seen in the pillars of cloud and fire.  So they coerced Aaron to build them a golden calf to idolize.  Of course, that ended up being smashed to smithereens.

Do we need something tangible?  Someone touchable to look up to?

How many of us rush to church with the same enthusiasm and excitement that we rush to see a concert?

How many of us have stayed home from church to cheer for our favorite football team or player?

How is it that we fall over each other to hear a famous speaker and miss the message of the man or woman next door?

When we expect others to be what only Jesus is, when we place them on pedestals, we set them up for failure and ourselves for disappointment.

We are probably not as likely to find Jesus on a stage or in a stadium or on the big screen.  We will more likely find Him on His knees in the mud.  Next to the homeless, the friendless, the helpless.

Sheila Walsh says in Let Go, "It's hard to fall off a pedestal when you are washing someone's feet."

We need to look through those we are tempted to "worship," and behold Jesus.

We need to look for those who are on their knees.  Serving.  Get down with them.  Then look up.  The only one left standing is Jesus.

The Famous One.



Who are you starstruck with today?

"Oh Lord, our Lord, our majestic is your name in all the earth!" ~Psalm 8:9 (NIV)


Copyright © 2009 by Sandra Heska King

Seven Basic Steps to Successful Christian Writing

I stumbled today on one of my first articles accepted for publication.  It appeared in The Christian Writer back in 1982, and it's speaking to me even now as I venture back into this scary territory.  Even though the editor, T.A. Norton, wrote "I like its unique concept for success,"  I now find the original a bit corny.  So I've sliced, diced and updated it just a tad.

S  Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness.  A Christian writer puts God first.

U  Understand God gives different gifts and ministries.  A Christian writer must use what He gives.

C  Consecrate your service to the Lord.  Today.  Every day.  To God.  Not money or fame.

C  Commit your way to the Lord.  Trust in Him, and He will do it.  A Christian writer gives control to God.

E  Endure hardship like a good soldier.  A writer's life involves dedication, discipline, and diligence.

S  Study to show yourself approved.  A Christian writer needs to learn the Word as well as the craft.

S  Speak the truth in love.  In season and out of season.  Fiction and nonfiction.  In all genres.

Question:  How do YOU spell SUCCESS?

Scriptures:  Matthew 6:33, I Corinthians 12:4-5, I Chronicles 29:5, Psalm 37:4-5, II Timothy 3:3, II Timothy 2:15, Ephesians 4:15



Copyright © 2009 by Sandra Heska King

A Carrot, an Egg, or a Coffee Bean?

How do you respond when bad things happen?  Or tough and rough things?  Or even little disappointments?  Or simply unexpected changes?

Do you melt down and fall apart?  Go limp and give up?  Become hard and embittered?  Or do you release the fragrance that's within, become richer and enrich the lives around you?

Dennis emailed this to me on Friday.  It's not a new story, but I think it speaks to many of our situations and bears repeating.

Are You a Carrot, an Egg, or a Coffee Bean?

A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her.  She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up.  She was tired of fighting and struggling.  It seemed as one problem was solved, a new one arose.  Her mother took her to the kitchen.

She filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire.

 

Soon the pots came to a boil.  In the first she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs, and in the last, she placed ground coffee beans.  

She let them sit and boil without saying a word.

In about twenty minutes, she turned off the burners.  She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl.  She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl.  Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl.  

Turning to her daughter, she asked, "Tell me what you see."

"Carrots, eggs, and coffee," she replied.

Her mother brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots.  She did and noted that they were soft.  The mother then asked the daughter to take an egg and break it.  After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard boiled egg.  

Finally, the mother asked the daughter to sip the coffee.  The daughter smiled as she tasted its rich aroma.  

The daughter then asked, "What does it mean, Mother?"

The mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity:  boiling water.  Each reacted differently.  

The carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting.  However, after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak.

The egg had been fragile.  Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior, but after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened.

The ground coffee beans were unique, however.  After they were in the boiling water, they had changed the water.

"Which are you?" she asked her daughter.  "When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond?  Are you a carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean?" 

~Author Unknown

 

Which are you?  

Are you the egg that starts with a malleable heart that becomes hard with the heat of a trial? 

Are you a carrot that seems strong but becomes weak in adversity? 

Are you a coffee bean that even when ground and subjected to trial releases flavor and fragrance?  That changes the very circumstance that brings pain?

Which are you?  A carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean?

"Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.  And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing."  James 1:2-4

Copyright © 2009 by Sandra Heska King

Expect the Unexpected

My phone beep, beep, beeped in the middle of yesterday's quiet, well-planned, writing afternoon with a text message. 

"Mom, prepare yourself.  I'm going to call in a few minutes."

My heart skipped a beat.  My daughter struggles with various health issues.  I knew she had a doctor's appointment.  She has a 25-year-old friend with a bowel cancer recurrence.  I know of several young people who face serious and even life-threatening illness.  Was it her turn?

Prepare yourself.

Kind of late.  Always good to be prepared before you need to be prepared.

I went to my knees.  And waited.

What do you do when you get that unexpected call?  The call that suddenly changes everything?  The one that shoots a hole in your expectations and dreams and comfortable bubble?  Are you like a mighty oak with a deep and strong root system that can bend and sway with the wind?  Or are you a tree with shallow roots that topples in the slightest breeze?

Can you adapt?  Just one more time?

Can you grow stronger and push those roots a little deeper?  Just one more time?

Prepare yourself.

But I knew.  A gut feeling.  I'm a mom after all.  This wouldn't be good news.  Necessarily.

The call came.  One of very mixed emotions.  Excitement.  Fear.

Worry.  About disappointing us.  Especially her dad.  Even her brother.

Disappointment.  God's appointment.

My daughter, now 24, single mom to a 7-year-old little girl, is pregnant again.

New life.

New challenges in the face of the unmarried issue, the school issue, the no-job issue, the no-money issue, the health issue.  For starters.

But she is loved.  By the father.  By his mother.  By us.  By our Father.

Unexpected by us.  Not unexpected by God.

Now expecting the unexpected.

Another life to touch that might one day touch the world.

I'm going to be a grandma again.

And it's all good.  Because babies are good.  Because God is good.

Are you prepared for the unexpected?

"But I am like an olive tree flourishing in the house of God; I trust in God's unfailing love for ever and ever.  I will praise you forever for what you have done; in your name I will hope, for your name is good.  I will praise you in the presence of your saints."  Psalm 52:8-9 (NIV)


Copyright © 2009 by Sandra Heska King

Book Review - Let Go by Sheila Walsh

"I will deliver you." 

Sheila Walsh, Women of Faith speaker, opened her book with these words from God spoken in her spirit.  She felt "discouraged and bone weary."  Just like so many of us women at so many times in our lives.

She needed "more peace about the issue."  So she began a "quest to study and understand what it means to be delivered."

A sense of frustration dogged my reading in the beginning because I wanted Sheila to "bleed."  I wanted to know exactly what struggle, what issue required deliverance.

I continued to read in my usual manner with pencil in hand, marking statements that spoke to me or seemed to relate to the theme of letting go.

Stuff like...

• Accepting what is enables us to embrace a different future.
• What should have happened did.
• When we are unable to forgive or refuse to forgive, we become hostages to the pain of the past.
• Forgiveness unclenches our fists and allows us to let go.
• The most difficult person to forgive can be the one we see in the mirror every morning.
• Resting in the love of God means letting go of all the broken pieces we cling to and clinging instead to him.
• It's hard to fall off a pedestal when you are washing someone's feet.
• Guilt tells me I've done something wrong.  Shame tells me I am something wrong.
• If I place my hope in anything or anyone other than Jesus, I will be disappointed.

And then she bled.  She shared the story.  And the intense spiritual struggle.  And wise words from a child.

And what seemed disjointed (which is often the way of healing) and all of my markings came together.  And carried more meaning.

Sometimes in order to hang on, we have to let go.

Thank you, Sheila, for being open and vulnerable.  For letting go of the need to protect yourself.  We've all been there in some form, and your overcoming gives us hope.

Copyright © 2009 by Sandra Heska King

The Non-Noticer

Focus is good.  Staying on the path.  Not looking right or left.  Eyes on the goal.

Except when driving.  Owl eyes rule.  A broad perspective.  Watching out for others.

A good time to be a noticer.

So you don't run someone off the road or into oncoming traffic.  Like me.

She had her blinker on.  Slowing down to get on the highway.  South.  But then she veered off the entrance ramp.  Toward me.  Even though I was blinking.  Getting ready to turn north.  She changed her mind.  Took cuts.  Don't think she even heard my horn.

A mile gone by the time I turned behind her.

Ms. Cauliflower Ear.  Cell phone glued firmly to the left.

But she never took her eyes off the road.

The non-noticer.

Focus is good.  Staying on the path.  Not looking right or left.  Eyes on goal.

Following Jesus.

With His eyes.  A broad perspective.  Watching out for others.

So as not to run them off the road.

So as to pull them from the ditch.

So as to bind their wounds and carry them until they can move on their own.

Following Jesus.

A good time to be a noticer.

"Heart-shattered lives ready for love don't for a moment escape God's notice." Psalm 51:17 (MSG)

Copyright © 2009 by Sandra Heska King

Listening

It's 5 a.m.  I hadn't planned to be at the computer this early.  In the morning dark. 

At 12:05, I had buried my face under the covers and cuddled next to a suitcase.  Dennis packing for Dallas.

At 3:50, I awoke to NPR music.  Loud.  Hadn't heard it for 20 minutes.

"Are you awake?" I groaned.

"No, but I'm getting up anyway."

At 4:15, Dennis woke me up again to kiss me goodbye.  After locating my face under the pillow.

At 4:20, I heard Gracee crying for her mom.  I stumbled downstairs to her room and found her buried under shreds of Kleenex.  She'd had a bad dream.  Probably about being attacked by a giant box of Kleenex.  She said shredding had helped her fall asleep.  I picked the Kleenex out of her hair, tucked her in, and restarted her music.  David Meece.

How she sleeps with music that peppy. 

At 4:30, I staggered back to bed and began to doze to the strains of "God's Promises are Rainbows in the Night" streaming through the monitor.

At 4:45, Gracee called again.  She was still scared.  Her stomach hurt.  She had to go to the bathroom.  And then Rose Dog had to go out.  I got everyone settled and fell back into bed.  Wide awake now.  Sort of.  With a slight headache.  I prayed a bit.

So now here I sit wrapped in my fluffy white bathrobe.  The one the tea baptized the other night when I dozed off on the sofa.  Smelling of bleach and Tranquil Mint lotion from Bath and Body Works. 

Listening to "Seventy Times Seven."

Listening to the dog snore.

Listening to the heater blowing on my feet.

Listening for Him.

Copyright © 2009 by Sandra Heska King