That Invisibility Thing...

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

In all honesty, one of the biggest revelations I had last week did not come because I was at Dive, specifically, but just because I was pulled away from the normal distractions of everyday life and my listening was dialed in...

I took advantage of the workout room in the hotel, and Wednesday was one of the days I was up early and hitting the treadmill. The only person in the room, I had music on my iPod, but I was more or less talking things over with the Spirit as I walked.

And I was thinking about the girls clubs...the revelation I'd had about it during the fasting day and the difference that had made.

But there was still one aspect of that whole thing that hurt.  It had to do with specific relationships,  and I still wasn't sure how to deal with it.  But as I was holding that up, asking what I needed to do to move through it and resolve it in my spirit, I got a flash of revelation about it.

'Oh...it's that invisibility thing, isn't it?' I said, suddenly remembering that my whole involvement in the girls clubs was part of what I had been told would be invisible.  And, being invisible, I shouldn't wonder that there would be certain folks who would just not even see that I was walking through a rough spot and could use a little encouragement. I've run into it before, in other areas.

And if HE made me invisible...well, I can't put any blame on PEOPLE.

And the answer I got was, 'Yes.'

But He continued.

'But that season is over, too.  You're done with invisible.'

I almost got dumped off the back of the treadmill.

'What?'

'You are done with invisible.  The time in those classes wasn't just about you teaching the girls...you were learning, too.  And now that season is done.'

Y'all, the world changed right there.  I had the original word about being invisible in 2002....that's 12 years ago.  I don't even know what it's like to be seen.

I changed the wording in my song lyrics slightly, because of that conversation.

Thursday evening, before we left our ice cream party at Rita's, she asked me, 'What are you going back to?'

I couldn't even answer that.  I have no paradigm for not being invisible...for being in the front and not in the back. I have no idea what is coming next.

But I have a feeling I'm about to find out.

Determined...

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

The end of a matter is better than its beginning, and patience is better than pride. -- Ecc 7:10

What does it mean to 'finish strong'?

As opposed to 'finish well', for instance?

'Finish well' -- a good job, completed the assignment to satisfaction,  disappointed no one;  placed in the top.  Commendable.

And I'm not going to disdain 'finish well' at all.  But 'finish strong' is something extra.

I have  fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith -- 2 Tim 4:7
 
'Finish strong' is to push past the finish line; to still be striving and straining through the goal even if it's not necessary...or seems to serve no purpose.  It's to have one's eyes on a point past the finish line, crossing the finish line as if it were not the finish line, still stretching, still pushing.  Pulling away from the pack, maybe...or, maybe, out of reckoning altogether.

It may not be a podium finish.  It may not even be a notable finish. Someone might just call it 'also ran'.  But it's a finish without a shred of 'give up' or 'ease up' or 'slack off' in it. 

They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever - 1 Cor 9: 25b


The temptation is always there, either way.  The Hare gave in...'I'm so far ahead, I can take a nap and it won't even matter.'   Others give up...'I'm so far behind, I can't possibly catch up; it won't even matter.' 

 'Finish strong' resists both giving in and giving up.

I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me -  Acts 20:24a 

'Finish strong'  assigns no blame, complains of no unfair treatment, maintains honor.

Easy, it ain't.

But it's always right.

But one thing I do:  Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal -- Phil. 3:13b - 14a

The finish may be hours behind the next one up.  No cameras, no crowds, no one even acknowledging the achievement.  No matter.  It's finished.

I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do - John 17:4
 

In the midst of change...

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

One of my favorite Christmas movies is The Muppet Christmas Carol.  There is something at the end of it, though, that has suddenly felt very  real-life...when The Spirit of Christmas Yet To Come moves Scrooge from one place to another, the whole world that they're in skews and spins and they walk through the twisting and come out in the other place as the world rights itself behind them.  They haven't changed a bit, but everything around them is different.

In a couple of key areas in my life and personal ministry, I've felt like things have begun to skew and twist around me.  It's odd and unsettling, because I'm not sure if I'm going to just walk through all the shifting and changing and come out on the other side basically as I went in or if I'm going to get caught up in the swirl and land with  a whole new assignment in another area all together.   Or even if I'm going to get shelved for a season.

As it has seemed to pick up momentum in the last few weeks, the memory verse for the current Friends Club (middle school girls class) unit has been a real 'word in due season' for me --

Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm.  Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.  -- 1 Cor. 15:58 NIV 84

So even if the current assignment comes to an end...in a different way than I had pictured...on the other side of the shifting, it has not been useless or worthless or without fruit.

Even if I don't necessarily see what the fruit was; even if all appearances are that it really never worked.  Even if ...well, even if whatever.  Nothing done in Him is ever a wasted effort.

Even if it appears to be invisible.

Invisiblity, part...3? The Facepalm...

Isn't weird how sometimes things that are so obvious take so long to register? 

Somehow, I have been reflecting over my current position(s) teaching the Girl's Ministry classes...and how long I resisted the pull to do that.  I'm thinking it was at least two years, and even when it became obvious that I was going to be teaching for at least a while, I prayed that God would send someone I could train to do it so I could get on with other stuff.  It took a pretty blatant word from Him before I recognized that it was, indeed, what I was supposed to do.

Do you know what my resistance was?  I had this gut feeling that if I went back to the Girls Ministries hallway I'd disappear.  Drop off the face of the church at large.  Go back there and never come out.

Become invisible.

And I didn't want that.  I didn't want to disappear.  I wanted to be Involved with The Main Thing...whatever that was.  I wanted...Credibility. 

It has only been lately; literally, during the fast, that I put that up against the word I had when we first got involved with this church that I was to be 'invisible' and realized that this was really what I was intended to do all along.

I just didn't get it.  I don't think I wanted to get it.  How else could I have missed it?

Now, of course, it is so obvious.  How could I have been so dull?

Because I wanted MY definition of invisibility...freedom to take a break, not be involved, not be responsible.  And I only wanted it for a season, while we caught our breath, found our feet, got refreshed.  Then I wanted to be visible again.  Doing.  Something that 'mattered'.

As if teaching young ladies didn't matter.  What a doofus.

There really is nothing that matters more than teaching young folks...getting them grounded and founded in truth.  It is the most influential position in the church...any church.  Let me tell you, that has been a paradigm shift for me.

Now I don' t know if I could leave.  For all its frustrations, this is one of the most rewarding things I've ever done.

Invisibility and all. ;-)

Invisibility Revisited

 Posted by Lisa Laree to  Beer Lahai Roi

After yesterday's post on being invisible,  I began to wonder if I had posted Nicole Johnson's piece on being invisible and I did a little search on my blog for 'Invisible'.

The posts that came up surprised me. I didn't realize I had talked about invisibility before.  I read over them and was chagrined that  I seem to be still learning those lessons.

However, the post on diamonds made me smile.  Invisibility is a grand thing if it means His light shines through.

And I found I have not posted the link to Nicole's Women of Faith presentation on being an Invisible Woman.  It's definitely worth sharing, so as we're contemplating being the implications of being invisible, I'll let Nicole speak to us about it:

Some time with an old friend

I have several books that I have started over the last few months that I want to try and finish reading during the fast...non-fiction books to get me to look at things in my life...and as I have thoughts on those I'll no doubt be posting them.

And I also have some pretty substantial Bible work to do...more on that on another day, too.

But the last few days I have been savoring a bit of time with an old friend of mine that has suddenly come back to mind, Hannah Hurnard's classic Hinds' Feet in High Place 

I can't really remember how long ago it was that a friend loaned me her copy and said I must read it...but I read it, gave it back, immediately ran out and bought my own copy and read it again.  I have no idea how many times I've read it since...and I'm pretty sure I've mentioned it before on the blog.

If I had to move to some small dwelling and could only take a half dozen books with me, this would be one. (Oy, sudden thought....I don't know if I COULD just take half a dozen books...)

This time, though, I'm doing something I've not done before...I'm actually underlining some passages.  Here is one from chapter 4 that particularly encouraged me:

All the fairest beauties in the human soul, its greatest victories, and its most splendid achievements are always those which no one else knows anything about

But, you know the Good Shepherd knows...

I struggle with feeling invisible.  When we first started attending our church, I very clearly heard 'You are to be invisible.'

Just coming from a very small congregation in which we were most certainly visible participants, my weary self relished that word.

But I had so very little concept of what it really meant.  Many times in the past 10 years I've come back to that, when my flesh wanted to be offended over some oversight, and reminded myself that He said I was to be invisible.

If He has put a cloak of invisibility on me, I can't be offended by people who don't see through it.

I'll tell you this...invisibility is a wonderful test of motives.  It has really made me inspect my actions ...why, really, did I do something?  Was it to serve the kingdom...or get grateful kudos for my service?

I'll be honest, I haven't always liked my answers.

But slowly I am learning this lesson...that the most wonderful service is that which is done in secret.  Invisible.

Because, you know, He sees the invisible.When He is the only one who sees it, there is no mixture of personal agenda in it. So what is left is pure in motive...and beautiful.

If it needs to be seen by someone else, He's the one that will point it out to them.  I don't have to.

And yes, I needed to remind myself of that very much right now.

That's what old friends are for.

Crystalizing Carbon

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

I pulled this off my hard drive, mostly because I need to be reminded of it. I don't remember when the revelation hit me, other than it was in a (I think early morning)prayer meeting at church sometime in the past 5 years.

It is heat and pressure that turns a lump of coal into a diamond. When the weight and fiery heat of God’s glory truly comes upon us, we will be transformed. The crystallization process actually puts the carbon atoms into order, just as God puts our hearts and minds into order as we are transformed into His likeness and become ‘living stones’. I think the thing that struck me the most, though, is that a diamond really isn’t beautiful in and of itself; it is beautiful because of the light that passes through it. Cut and ground into the proper shape, it will maximize the light flowing through it and reflecting from it. A really beautiful diamond is almost invisible, due to the dazzling effect of the light.

We have two processes to undergo…the transformation and then the cutting/grinding/polishing…in order to allow that dazzling light to be visible.

I don't know if My Sweet Baboo and I are being heated and pressured into transformation, or if we're being cut and ground...

Ruth: Lesson 2

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

Ruth: A Blogged Bible Study
Beerlahairoi.blogspot.com

Syllabus

5/20/08 Introduction

5/27/08 Chapter 1: Losses and Gains

6/3/08 Chapter 2: Gleaning

6/10/08 Chapter 3: Redemption Requested

6/17/08 Chapter 4: Redemption Manifested

Chapter 2: Gleaning

When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleainings...leave [it] for the poor and the alien. I am the LORD your God. -- Leviticus 19:9 - 10

When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the alien, the fatherless and the widow, so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the works of your hands -- Deuteronomy 24:19

And Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, "Let me go to the fields and pick up the leftover grain behind anyone in whose eyes I find favor." -- Ruth 2:2

Remember, Ruth and Naomi arrived in Bethlehem just as the barley harvest was beginning. That was not pure chance, nor was it just a random thing that the first field she went to...which was obviously a large field as it required a team of workers to harvest it...belonged to a man named Boaz, who is described in verse 1 as 'a relative on [Naomi's] husband's side, from the clan of Elimelech, a man of standing.' I also believe he was in his mid to late 40's; based not only on his position but also on the way he speaks about and to Ruth, whom I believe was probably still in her teens.

I have heard the story of Ruth referred to as a romance, a love story...but the plain truth is there is not one drop of evidence that romantic love played any part in this story whatsoever. There is respect, there is honor, there is favor, but the only love mentioned is the love Ruth had for her mother-in-law. Ruth went to the fields because it was a legitimate way for her to provide for herself and her mother-in-law; she asked permission to glean from the workers, and she worked steadily but wisely, resting when she needed to.

Bethlehem was a small town and Naomi's return was News. However, despite the fact that Naomi declared she came back empty, the townspeople had noticed (and obviously discussed) Ruth. Boaz had already heard her story and been impressed by it...not only had Ruth demonstrated remarkable loyalty and care, but his family had been the beneficiary of her dedication. In appreciation and, I think, as an intentional expression of the grace of 'the God of Israel, under whose wings [she had] come to take refuge,' Boaz blesses Ruth with both protection and provision:

He instructed her to glean only in his fields, and he had given his men instructions not to touch her; she would be protected in his fields (no small thing in those rather lawless times).

He told her to drink from the water provided for his workers.

He provided her lunch along with his workers; she received a portion too large for her to eat and carefully took the rest back to Naomi.

He instructed his men to leave extra grain lying for her to pick up, and to allow her to get grain wherever she wanted to...even to pulling it from the sheaves they had already bound.

The marginal note in my NIV indicates that when Ruth had threshed out the grain she had gathered, she had about 3/8 of a bushel...based on Naomi's reaction, that was quite a bit for just picking up what was left ungathered the first time. Naomi recognized that Ruth was receiving some preferential treatment. With a practical mind, she noted that Boaz, who was being so kind, was one of their kinsman-redeemers. That is, he was a relative close enough that he could purchase and hold the property of Elimelech and raise up a son in his name to inherit it, so that the family line and inheritance would remain intact.

So, following the instructions of both Boaz and Naomi, Ruth gleaned in the fields of Boaz for the rest of the barley harvest and on through the wheat harvest, staying with his servant girls in the fields. Boaz no doubt kept an eye on her, and noted that she came and worked regularly and with diligence to provide for herself and her mother in law. Need I say it...she was seen.

"Gleaning" is the practice of picking up that which was overlooked, dropped, leftover or forgotten but yet has value. Ruth gleaned in the barley and wheat fields, but I believe there was more gleaning going on here. She herself may have felt overlooked, dropped or forgotten. In a foreign land, caring for a sad older woman with little hope of any kind of future, she was doing what she needed to do to survive. Like the leftover scrap clay used in the plaque I posted yesterday, her purpose seemed to be missed. But the Master Potter had a different plan, and was creating something unique. Even though the fiery trial caused what looked like a fatal crack, the Father knows how to apply the glue that mends and restores.

Gleaning is hard work; it is not something that gets any kind of accolades or reward. It's an invisible sort of task. But God knows how to bring favor even to someone who is laboring invisibly; Ruth did nothing unusual...but she did it willingly and uncomplainingly and without worrying about how *she* was going to be fulfilled. And THAT was what proved her character to those in the area.

Once her character was proven, she was in a position to receive a greater blessing than she had ever considered.


Closing thoughts: What tasks are before me, that I can undertake with the attitude of Ruth, in order to prove my character (or, *im*prove my character, as the case may be)? What around me has been overlooked, dropped, leftover or forgotten that I can recover and restore to its purpose? Where do I need to trust God to recover and restore what appears to be broken and hopeless in my own life?