sheri carlstrom...slices of an ordinary life

I Wonder...

Our church is on a 40 day journey. The question we are being asked to ponder is "I wonder what would happen If..." and then fill in the blank. As this question is being answered by pastors, staff and members of our church the answers are being recorded at 40daysofwonder.com.

I filled in the blank, you can read what I wrote here.

 

An Ordinary Day in October 2007

Something happened at the Y this week that caused me to go back three years and post this.

Sunday Morning

 
 I wrote about Sunday, you can read it here.

On Loan

I had a conversation with my sister the other day that has given me a fresh perspective and great inspiration.

She met recently with a new executive officer at her company who brings not only his deep workplace expertise and leadership to his new position, but also his faith. Interesting.

Intrigued by this, my sister asked to meet with him. One of the things he told her is that he views his employment with this company as being on loan from God. Before I go on, think about that, that seems like a big concept to me. Wherever you are putting forth effort right now, you are on loan from God. Whether you are an executive, waitress, stay-at-home mom, engineer, or bus driver, you work for God.

Based on this viewpoint, when this particular executive sits in meetings and walks through his days, he prays and asks for wisdom and words to help make the company successful. He says he is succumbent to God. When things are said in meetings that are not feeling productive, he prays and then interjects what comes to his mind. Things of God, not my own reactions...hmmmmm.

What a wonderful, refreshing perspective and manner of going through the day. I'm not here for me, I'm here for you. I won't be defensive, I will be on your offensive team. I will take my eyes off of me and look at you. I work at a church, this should come naturally, right? But how many times do I think, I don't have time for this? How is this going to impact me? Wow. Yikes...and ouch.

How about this: my life is temporary. I am a temp working for God and my current placement is Communications Director at one of His many churches. What will I do during my time here to make the greatest impact for Him? How will I help our team be most successful...for Him? Good questions from a higher perspective.

Old Testament Journey - 1 Chronicles

With my renewed discipline during Lent, I have traveled back to the Old Testament. I read through 1 Chronicles and am now in the the 26th chapter of 2 Chronicles. Second Chronicles is a book where I am finding myself saying things like "No way" and "You've got to be kidding" and even find there are mornings when I just have to read the next chapter to see what's going to happen. There is much to write about in 2 Chronicles, but I will go back to 1 Chronicles and share a few nuggets first. (Click on the highlighted verse to read it on youversion.com)

1 Chronicles 5:20
Cry out to God during the battle. God delivered because the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half tribe of Manasseh trusted in Him. It's easier at times for me to stop at the crying out to him, but they cried out and trusted him.

1 Chronicles 16:8-36
OK, lots here - some of the nuggets are:

• Give praise
• Tell what He has done
• Call on the LORD
• Sing to Him
• Seek His Face
• Remember wonders, miracles, judgments
• Sing to the LORD
• Proclaim His salvation
• Give thanks to the LORD

2 Chronicles 21:24
I will not sacrifice something to God that costs me nothing. Which makes sense really, but David said it, and I highlighted it, so I'm sharing it.

2 Chronicles 29:9
Leaders give first. If I'm a leader, I need to be giving first. My time, my talent, my treasure.

2 Chronicles 29:17
True. May I stand before the LORD and say this.

Next time I will come back to Chapter 21, this chapter is so full, I need to post on this by itself.

Fasting to Turn to God

I have an idol. I don't like to admit it. I'm embarrassed to say it. I'm ashamed when I recognize it - but drift toward it anyway. I'm horrified when I think about standing before God with this sin in front of me.

With Lent upon us, I have been mindful of a recent message at my church about fasting during Lent. Fasting, traditionally from certain foods or entire meals, is meant for self-denial. The time that would have been spent on the meal is instead spent drawing closer to God.

This year I am engaging in a different self-denial, one that will hopefully lead me to smashing the idol that resides with me, thus drawing me into deeper relationship with God.

My idol is my computer. Although quite honestly, its not really the computer itself, it is the addiction to check e-mail and Facebook that has captured me. So the idol resides less with me and more within me. (Easier to hide that idol, harder to get rid of.)

I enjoy feeling connected. After joining Facebook, I understood the sense of community my friends and co-workers would speak of, and I like it. My e-mail keeps me in the loop with the teacher of a particular child of mine, friends who don't "facebook", and more. None of this is bad, but it is when it comes first and foremost in my day...I grab my coffee and check my computer.

But for the past nine days, I have grabbed my coffee and checked in with God. My "sacrifice" for Lent is that I will not check my the computer until I have checked in with my heavenly Father. I need to step around the computer and go to God first.

This was not easy the first few days, I wanted to cheat a little...except there is no cheating God a little. I either cheat Him, or I don't. To cheat Him is to steal from Him, so that would be a whole other commandment to work through.

I am only nine days into Lent and I will report this: It is good. I look forward to my time with God. My days seem to run more smoothly - and I am sure it is because I have ordered my day in an honoring way. My idol is already less attractive, God is more fulfilling. The connection on-line can make me smile, even make me happy, but the connection with my Father is bringing me joy.

Have you sacrificed something for Lent? If you have, comment below and tell us what you have given up and how it is affecting you. I'll start you off with a link to a friends blog, she sacrificed in an inspiring way - click here to read.

A Holy Moment

This morning, while worshiping in church, there was a holy moment that captured me. Today was summer camp kick-off at our church and the youth worship band was leading worship. I love when this happens, youth who are leaders anywhere in the church excite me.

My fifteen year old son leads kindergarten and first graders every other month in Sunday school; I love that little kids get to see a teen boy leading. It is quite possible his presence will inspire one of these little ones someday. The other thing that excites me is that as our kids become active members, the potential for their faith, community and connection grows. Hopefully this also creates more positive experiences so that as they go off to college or move away, they know the one place to get involved right away is a local church.

But, back to what happened this morning. My two daughters were on vocals and as we worshiped God through the song "How Great is Our God", I opened my eyes at a  moment when both the girls had their hands in the air and eyes closed, singing straight into the heart of God.

It was a holy moment. As a parent I could feel myself step back. This was a place that I pray about. This is the place I can let go. This is the place where I know its all OK.

There are moments and places where I want to walk as closely with my kids as I can, places where sometimes I am afraid, times when I don't think I can let go. But when I saw my girls move into the surrender of worship, I backed up, I teared up, I let go. As a parent, my deepest longing for my children is that they will develop a strong and enduring relationship with God. If they walk within the boundaries, love, mercy and forgiveness of God, I know the letting go (which begins to happen as they grow closer and closer to leaving this nest of ours) will be easier.

When they were very little, they raised their little hands to me and I picked them up with love. Watching them raise their hands to their heavenly Father, well...I am assured He will pick them up with a greater love than even I.

The $1 Difference

It is the season for the Red Kettles, sponsored by the Salvation Army. They are everywhere it seems, and I believe at some point or another, we've all done this...walked in the other door to avoid the kettle.

Sometimes we don't want to give not one more dollar. Sometimes we don't have even have one dollar to give.

Last year our pastor encouraged something that changed my spirit and my direction for this year. He suggested getting a bunch of $1 bills and dropping one in every time we pass a Red Kettle. Giving perspective, he said even if you cross 50 kettles in the season, its $50. So a few weeks ago, I went to the bank and got one dollar bills. (I keep them in a specific place in my purse so I don't spend them at Starbucks.)

The difference in me has been noticeable; I am excited to hear the bells ringing now. In fact, last week we were in New York City and instead of feeling grateful for the crowd that gave me the excuse to move away from the Kettle, I had fun navigating the crush of people to get to the many Kettles.

If you can, I challenge each of you who read this to get your one dollar bills and post back your thoughts and responses!

'Tis the season to Spend Less. Give More. Worship Fully. Love All. (That's our current message series at my church. It seemed to fit into this post. If you want to listen to the first message, given 11.29.09, click here.)

Right there the Whole Time

A few weeks ago, on a staff retreat, we received the gift of fifteen minutes of silence. We were told to go find a place to walk or sit and simply be with God. The trees were still very full of leaves, but were coming down like snow that day due to the wind. I found a bench under a tree that was covered with leaves, I brushed them off and sat down.

I had not been feeling very close to God for some time, and so I started out by reminding myself that God is not a feeling; whether I felt He was close or not had no bearing on where He actually was. As the leaves continued to pour down from the trees, I said to God, "Could I have a leaf, right here in my lap, as a sign that you are near?"

I immediately thought of Gideon who asked God to give him a sign by making his fleece wet while the threshing floor remained dry. When God did that, Gideon then asked the next day that the fleece be dry while the floor was wet. (Judges 6:36-40)

Then I thought about the verse"Do not test the LORD your God..." I was reminded of the faith of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. They knew God was faithful whether they burned up in the furnace or not. (Daniel 3:16)

"OK," I said to God,  "it doesn't really matter if I feel you or not, it doesn't matter if you give me a leaf or not, I will trust that you are near." And I went on to pray and worship Him. When it was time to head to lunch, I dropped my hands out of my lap to stand up, and there it was...a leaf...in my lap.

I don't know when or how it got there, my eyes were open the whole time as I sat there on the bench. I watched leaves go to the left and to the right of my legs, I never saw the leaf drop into my lap. I laughed out loud - and thought, This is so like God. I didn't see or feel the leaf (or Him) show up, but I suddenly knew He (and possibly the leaf) had been here the whole time.

The other thing about the leaf was this - it was smallish and brown. I laughed at that too, I pictured a big, beautiful red leaf in my ask...God gave me a small brown one. As I chuckled, here's what I heard in my head, My grace is sufficient for you.

I walked to lunch and I tucked that leaf into my pocket as a reminder of God's faithfulness, presence and grace in my life; whether I feel it or not.

Old Testament Journey - Back to Nehemiah

There is so much in this book that is speaking to me, here are the few nuggets I'm chewing on today:

Chapter 3:
Rebuilding Jerusalem's walls and gates was a huge job. After Nehemiah finished his inspection of the walls, he did not simply get to work. He gathered the people together, affirmed the trouble they were in, and said "Come, let us rebuild the wall..."

My Take-away:
I love that they rebuilt the wall together. If we belong to a church body, the application I see is that when one of our leaders identifies a project, mission, outreach, then we should do what we can to begin the good work. There were many hands that contributed to the rebuilding. In the Archaeological Study Bible at the beginning of the book of Nehemiah it says, "The national identity of God's people were at stake". How true is this even today. Let's do this together, with intention.

Chapter 4:
As the Jews were rebuilding the wall there was constant ridicule, taunting and threats. Verse 9 says "But we prayed to our God..." and verse 14 says, "...Don't be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your people, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes."

My take-away:
If you have not endured ridicule, taunting or threats to the walls of your family, there will come a time when you will. When that happens, let us each remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and lets fight for our people, our sons and our daughters, our husbands/wives and our homes. Seriously, this is something to be posted on our mirrors. Sometimes we will have to fight for what we have built.

Chapter 6:
When others were trying to drag Nehemiah and the work at hand off course, he knew he was being set up and he refused to engage, he stayed focused and on track. I love his response in verse 3, "I am carrying on a great project...why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you?"

The attempts continue, lies are told by the enemies and yet here is Nehemiah's response, "Nothing like what you are saying is happening; you are just making it up in your head." (this sounds like something one of my kids would say, but it is from the mouth of a great leader!) He knew they were trying to frighten the Jews thinking to themselves, "Their hands will get too weak for the work, and it will not be completed." But Nehemiah prayed, "Now strengthen my hands."

My Take Away:
I lose focus all too often. I need to identify the great projects that I am working on, stay on track regardless of distractions, and ask God to strengthen my hands.

Bottom Line

• Let's do the work of God together.
• Fight for your sons, daughters, husbands, wives, and/or your home.
• Stay on track, pray for strengthened hands.