Jane Eyre

I watched Jane Eyre for the first time tonight. I watched a movie recently that had the book in it. I had only seen the book's cover but had no idea the story that lay in between the pages. When I saw that it was on t.v. I decided I wanted to know more so I watched it. It's the cheater's version I know, but I was glad I cheated. I'll try not to ruin the story. I will however tell this about Jane Eyre. She was a woman who betrayed neither her heart nor her integrity, but it took not wavering in her integrity to not compromise either. Had she given in to her temptations she would have lost both.

I originally thought the moral of this applied only to a small group. It actually applies to each one of us. I have thought for a long time how we often forfeit blessings down the road for the pleasures of the moment and how if we could only see ahead and forgo those momentary impulses with lasting consequences we will find that true happiness we long for. Sometimes that means giving up what we long for entirely, other times it simply means not now. Unfortunately in the moment we hardly ever know which it is, and so too often we leap now and then regret later.

The story of Jane Eyre taught me that both the heart and integrity are important. She had an opportunity to leave her heart behind (on an impulse), yet she did not, and in the end gained what she desired. This was without the bitter empty feeling that acting without integrity almost invariably leaves because she had maintained her honor in the days prior to that. We are meant for great things in this life, but we must remain true to our heart and our integrity to fully attain them. Both are necessary.

"Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart." ~Psalm 37:4 (NIV)

There's More to the Story

I am reading a book about "the 7 tipping points that saved the world." As I began to read the first tipping point, the book was giving names like Judah, Sennacherib, Assyria, and Lachish. I recognized them all from the Bible but couldn't pinpoint the story in my mind so I put down that book and began looking in the Bible for the story. I opened a Bible with archaeological helps in it and came across an article entitled "The Lachish Reliefs." It described 12 stone slabs that were placed in Sennacherib's palace in Nineveh. The slabs "vividly depict Sennacherib's victory over the fortified Judahite town of Lachish in 701 B.C." With this knowledge, I looked up the page at the story of King Hezekiah in 2 Kings 18. The story started out talking about Hezekiah's background and about his faithfulness to the Lord. In verses 6 and 7 it says, "He held fast to the Lord and did not cease to follow Him; he kept the commands the Lord had given Moses. And the Lord was with him, he was successful in whatever he undertook. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and did not serve him." Then in verse 13, "In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah's reign, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them." The text went on to say that Hezekiah sent a message to Sennacherib that he had done wrong and asked him to withdraw. Then Hezekiah gave him all his silver and even stripped the gold off the doorposts of the temple of the Lord. At this point I whispered to myself, "This doesn't make sense." In the verses before it said that God was with Hezekiah and gave him success in whatever he did, but in the verses after it and from the Lachish reliefs it sounded as though Sennacherib had won. Then the thought occurred to me to read on. The story was not over there. As I continued reading I discovered that Sennacherib's men came and blasphemed God's abilities to Hezekiah's troops. Arrogantly stating that Judah didn't have a chance against their army. When Hezekiah heard about it he tore his robes, and prayed. The Lord sent word through Isaiah that He had heard his prayer, and Isaiah delivered to him the word the Lord had spoken against Sennacherib. In chapter 19:35, "That night the angel of the Lord went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning--there were all the dead bodies!" It continues in verse 36, "So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there." The last verse of the chapter describes the assassination of Sennacherib by his own sons.

It's easy for me to get caught up in what is going on in this moment, and sometimes what is going on in this moment does not seem good to me. Sometimes I stop before the story is over saying, "I don't understand." The thing I can bank on, if I will, is that God is faithful 100% of the time. It's us who aren't always faithful, who don't always hold up our end of the covenant. Don't stop before the end of the story. Stay faithful to God because He is worthy of that faithfulness.

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose." ~Romans 8:28

The Great Were Once As You

There is a poem by Edgar Guest called "The Great Were Once As You." If you are unfamiliar with the poem its a great one to Google. The gist of it is that those we call great started out as ordinary and in fact still are ordinary men and women, but they didn't run when times of testing came. Rather they stayed and stood their ground even if that meant standing alone. There was no magic to it. They just did what needed to be done when it needed to be done. Its simple yet sometimes difficult to do.

It's not something that is done with perfection either. However there ought to be a striving for perfection and a forgiveness of self (and others) when that perfection isn't obtained. And if we strive for that perfection with the goal to glorify God and not self we will meet with incredible results.

Oh Youth, go forth and do! You, too, to
fame may rise;
You can be strong and wise. Stand up to
life and play the man
You can if you'll but think you can;
THE GREAT WERE ONCE AS YOU.
You envy them their proud success?
'Twas won with gifts that you possess. ~Edgar Guest

Trust in the LORD with all your heart, 
And lean not on your own understanding; 
In all your ways acknowledge Him, 
And He shall direct your paths.  ~Proverbs 3:5,6 (NKJV)

Example

I was playing basketball the other day with one of the players. As we were bantering back and forth he made a comment that struck a chord with me about the importance of our example in our lives because it was very telling about society today. I won't go into the actual details of the conversation but in a nutshell he automatically assumed that I was telling him not to say something that I would say myself when not in a "teacher" setting. He was mistaken, but the thought was very intriguing.

I began thinking about the importance of the teachers', parents', older siblings' etc examples in the lives of these young people (the future of our nation.) How can we expect them to listen to what we say and pay no attention to what we are doing? If we are honest with ourselves we cannot. If what we say and what we do are opposed to each other, odds are they are going to pay more attention to what we do. There will be times when even when we are doing the right thing people will assume we are not. Some of this can be prevented, some cannot. The point is if we want to help grow the people around us into men and women of integrity... we have to be that ourselves. Something that is so much easier said than done, but something that will require much effort, and might even step on our toes when we find we don't quite measure up to the standard. (I have seen that in myself often this year alone.) But if we can press on, I don't think we will be disappointed.

"Commit to the Lord whatever you do and your plans will succeed." ~Proverbs 16:3 (NIV)

Why do you do what you do?

Purpose. Its such a simple concept, but the results of doing things with a purpose are life-changing. It takes just going through the motions and changes it to doing things with a clarity unknown to many. There are so many worthy endeavors out there to live and do things for, and so often it is easy to get caught up in letting the events of life happen to us instead of taking life to the events.

Can you imagine a life where people took a proactive stance to life? Where people started doing things because it brought joy not only to their own lives, but also to the lives of others? Where the "almighty dollar" was changed into a tool for doing greater things? Where God was the single most important priority in people's lives, and they lived first and foremost to serve Him, and then to help those He had created to become the best they could become for His Kingdom? Can you imagine the ways that would change the world you lived in?

I don't know how it is in your world, but in mine it often seems like the devil is winning. We could probably put a whole list of things down on paper of all the areas where the devil seems to be winning, but we are not helpless victims in this fight. As a friend once said, "If we are on God's side we have already won! All we have to do is fight!" May we see the need to walk daily in the ways of the Lord, and to find the purpose in our daily grind that will allow us to overcome the struggles and show the world a better way to live.

The man answered, "'You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all you soul, all your strength, and all your mind.' And, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'" ~Luke 10:27

Hidden Blessings of Adversity

I was in the locker room a couple weeks ago listening to Coach talking to the team after the game they had just lost. He could have come in and ripped the players apart. I sat through plenty post game speeches in my years of playing where the coaches would do that. (I don't remember many, they'd start yelling and I would tune out.) Instead he went into his office for a minute or two before coming into the room and asking the players what adversity meant. Throughout the season the program has hit many obstacles including both avoidable and unavoidable circumstances that has kept the team from playing with its full strength. His point was not to make excuses for those things that were not in anyone's control nor to add further blame to those things that could have been avoided. Instead he was able to get across in a very relevant way a valuable life lesson that if applied can help everyone of those girls not only in their basketball careers but in the different struggles they will face in life.

Adversity hits everyone, but what we choose to do with it is what allows us to either rise above and become more than we would have been otherwise or breaks us and makes us weaker. The thing is, that it is not up to chance whether we will sink or swim, but rather the decision we make. Adversity sometimes comes along because we make bad decisions, other times it occurs just because and is out of our control. Both allow great opportunities for us to overcome if we will seek the good in it. If we will pray that our focus will not be on the bad things that come up in life but on the opportunities that arise from them and the ways we can use them for God's glory, just imagine what we will be able to accomplish!

"This third I will put into the fire; I will refine them like silver and test them like gold. They will call on my name and I will answer them; I will say, ‘They are my people,’ and they will say, ‘The LORD is our God.’” ~Zechariah 13:9 (NIV)

No, they don't hate you

Why does the Bible tell us to do the things it tells us to do? Why do our parents require certain things of us? Why did our coaches push us so hard? Why did we have to make certain grades in school in order to be able to do the fun extra-curricular things we truly enjoyed? What was the point in all these things? Was it not to help us become the best we are capable of becoming?

I think its sometimes easy to forget that the ones pushing us to do these things really want the best for our lives. God is the perfect example. He didn't give all these rules to inhibit but rather to free. Granted we have to have self-discipline in order to live up (as best we can) to His commands, but in the end it frees us. Our parents while not perfect because they are flesh, give us rules as well, not as a hindrance but in order to teach us how to be respectable people. Our coaches wanted our best effort and often made us run when we didn't give it or showed less than desirable attitudes not because they didn't like us, but because they saw what we were capable of and how the things we were doing could limit our potential. Likewise teachers did the same thing (minus the running.)

Something else I often forgot and sometimes still do is that my idea of the perfect way to do things doesn't always happen. People are different, and while sometimes others should improve upon their methods, sometimes it is I who needs to realize that my way isn't always the right one. I think though that when we start giving people the benefit of the doubt that they are trying to do the right thing (helping them out when they are not trying), that we will be able to accomplish much more then if we see people in the light of they don't know what they are talking about, or they are doing this because they don't like us. The more we learn to work with people while staying solidly grounded in the Truth, the more I believe we will be able to accomplish both for the Lord and in the objectives we are trying to achieve. 

"Do to others as you would have them do to you." Luke 6:31