The Homeless Wanderer

Psalm 119:37(MSG)
Divert my eyes from toys and trinkets, invigorate me on the pilgrim way.
I am a Ci-Co Girl.  (Pronounced "Sick-O".)  Have you heard of that word?  Ci-Co?  You won't find it in Webster's Dictionary.  It can only be found in "Wiser's Dictionary".  In this book there are words that I myself made up...and sense my last name is Wiser...you have....yeap you guessed it...the "Wiser's Dictionary".  Anyway, I will probably need to define this one for you, sense my dictionary has not been picked up for publishing yet.  Ci-Co Girl defines a girl who is a cross between a city girl and a country girl.

Let me expound on that.  You see, when I go to a city such as, oh let's just say Atlanta, I feel very much like a country girl.  However, when I go out to my sister's house in the country and I enter the barn and hear them say they are going to "put up hay",  I'm looking around for the cabinets to neatly stack some pieces of straw in to get them out of the way.  It is at that point that I feel very much like a city girl.  You understand?  I don't fit in either place.  I am not a savvy city girl and I'm certainly far from being an official country girl.  I'm a Ci-Co Girl.

Take, for example, my recent trip to Atlanta.  I flew in to stay with my niece.  Upon arrival at the airport, I disembarked the plane and promptly started reading the signs.  My destination was "Ground Transportation".  I had studied well before hand the lay out of this monstrous airport.  I cocked my head back and meandered down the concourse with the rest of the weary travelers.  I know I looked quite comfortable.  (I had practiced the look.)  I seemed to fit in. 

On the inside, however, I was rehearsing my route.  It went something like this....Take the next right and follow it to the tram.  Board the tram and ride it to the "ground transportation" sign.  Get off the tram and walk through the gates to the MARTA system (Atlanta's Rail System).  Saunter over to the MARTA store and nonchalantly purchase a MARTA riding card.  Swipe the card past the infrared gate opener and shuffle through the opening like you have done this a thousand times.  (That would have worked too, I might add, had I not been waiting for the wrong gate to open.  I stood there swiping and swiping my card all the while not realizing that the gate to my left was open for me!  It took the real "City Girl" behind me to politely inform me to use the other gate!)  Board the subway, flop in a chair like you own the place and ride it through down town Atlanta!  Listen carefully, while pretending to read your book, for the "Red Route" disembarking prompter.  DO NOT get off early by accident, because then I will be on the Green Route or the Gold Route.....they will take me to the wrong place!!  It was a busy place in my head that day with all of those directions floating around...let me tell you!

The bottom line in all of that was to say, that as long as I stayed on my "route", I would eventually get to my destination.  I did reach my niece's house without incident by the way.  I also had an escort (my sweet brother-in-law) who met me at the MARTA entrance to ensure my safe travel.  I looked like I belonged there, but I really didn't belong there on that subway anymore than I belong in the barn "mucking out" a stall!  (I do know what that one means....although I have never officially done it.)   

I spotted these two ducks crossing over the bridge instead
of swimming to get to the other side of the river!
  I have never seen ducks take this route!

I had to chuckle as they navigated down the stairs!

This verse prompted me to think about the word pilgrim.  At it's most basic meaning, the word pilgrim is defined as "traveler or homeless wanderer".  In the Latin orientation it refers to a "foreigner or stranger." 

We really are strangers here on earth, aren't we?  Wandering around trying to figure out where we fit in.  The thing is, that we will never "fit in" in this world if we are a child of the King.  And that's okay, because we were never meant to.  As a Christ follower I don't have to feel comfortable here on planet earth.  It's only my temporary home.  I just need to find the gifts and talents He has given me, so that I might utilize them to help His children and thereby to glorify His name on my travels. 

The best way I know to identify my gifts and talents, and therefore decrease my wandering aimlessly without purpose, is to define my convictions.  At the very core of that task is to recognize the difference between my convictions and my preferences.  My convictions are my non-negotiable core beliefs.  These convictions will be the fuel to motivate my actions and uncover any God given talents, so I can use them.  They keep me on track.  I have studied them.  I have memorized them.  I will not waiver from them.  My personal convictions are based upon the Word of God and my preferences are usually based upon the word of my flesh, so to speak.

Here are a few of my convictions:

1. I will love God before anyone or anything else and never belittle His glorious name. (Exodus 20:1-4)
2. I will Honor my parents. (Exodus 20:12)
3. I will teach my children to know, honor, and love God. (Ephesians 6:4)
4. I will treat human life as sacred from the moment of conception.  (Psalm 139:13-16)
5. I will be satisfied and grateful with what the Lord has blessed me with. (Exodus 20:17)

Lord,
Thank you for the gift of Your Word that allows my wandering through planet earth to be invigorated with purpose and a clearly defined destination.  You're all I really need to master this portion of my pilgrimage.  Please give Your confidence to each of us today and assure us that the route we are on is the one that You have placed us on.  Help us to listen carefully to Your promptings so  we will remain faithful to fulfill the journey You have designed specifically for each one of us.
In the Holy name of Jesus,
Amen

My "Jonah Mood"

Proverbs 5:17 (MSG)
Your spring water is for you and you only, not to be passed around among strangers.

That word "strangers" has me thinking about the mood I am in today.  I would call it a  "Jonah Mood".  What does that mean?  Well, going forward from Proverbs to the book of Jonah, we find this guy that has received alot of attention on flannel boards in the kids Sunday School departments throughout history.  Usually, the focus gets put on the "big fish" that swallows Jonah alive, where he then lives in the belly of the gargantuan creature for three days and three nights before getting spit out on dry land....unharmed I might add.    Pretty cool story in and of itself, but that misses my "mood" portion.  Let me try to explain.

You see, the way I figure it, when you start at the very beginning of the book, you have a man feeling pretty much the way I'm feeling right now.  He's feeling sorry for himself and doesn't want to do what God, very directly, told him to do. 

Listen to it in Jonah 1:1-4(MSG) "One day long ago, God's Word came to Jonah, Amittai's son:  "Up on your feet and on your way to the big city of Nineveh!  Preach to them.  They're in a bad way and I can't ignore it any longer."  But Jonah got up and went the other direction to Tarshish, running away from God.  He went down to the port of Joppa and found a ship headed for Tarshish.  He paid the fare and went on board, joining those going to Tarshish--as far away from God as he could get.

Are you catching his mood?  He doesn't want to do what God has asked him to do.  He really seems to be a little ticked off at God.  We know that he certainly wants to run away from God!!  Why on earth would he want to run away from God?  Weird huh?  Well, Jonah gets thrown into the water by the crew thinking that he has made His God mad and created this storm.  (I figure that Jonah probably did make God a little cranky.)   That's when the whale enters the story.  As Jonah is being tossed over....cue the whale.....he is scooped up and saved by the whale and placed in the beast's belly.   After a very touching prayer in the belly of the fish, Jonah is spit out on dry land. 

That is the part of the story that gets most of the attention.  But, if you keep reading, you find out what this is all about....in my estimation anyway.  It seems that the second directive to Jonah from God is identical to the first~Jonah 3:1-2, but this time the response from Jonah is totally different!  Jonah 3:3~"This time Jonah started off straight for Nineveh, obeying God's orders to the letter."  He told the people that "In forty days Nineveh will be smashed!"

The immediate response of the king of Nineveh was to throw down his royal robes, dress in burlap and sit in the dirt.  He ordered everyone else in his kingdom to due the same, including all herds and flocks.  The king told them to turn from their evil and violent ways, quit eating and drinking (even water), and cry out to God for help.  He proceeded to tell them that if they did this, then just maybe God would let them live.  He must have been a pretty impressive leader, because the people did exactly what they were told to do.  

Pretty cool thing happens next....if I didn't think that talking to God can sometimes alter the course of His plans...I got my proof in this story cuz....guess what?  Yeap...Almighty God decides to let them all live and not smash the city to smithereens.  I know...isn't that the coolest??! 

That's where my friend Jonah's mood comes in.  Listen to it in Jonah 4:1-2(MSG) "Jonah was furious.  He lost his temper.  He yelled at God, 'God!  I knew it--I knew it--when I was back home, I knew this was going to happen!  That's why I ran off to Tarshish!  I knew you were sheer grace and mercy, not easily angered, rich in love and ready at the drop of a hat to turn your plans of punishment into a program of forgiveness!'" (emphasis mine)  It's like Jonah is irate because God is going to help a bunch of no good strangers that aren't even worthy of His attention.  But check out what God says to him.  God replies to Jonah, "What do you have to be angry about?"  Jonah doesn't answer...he just walks out of the city and sits down.

The story continues outside in the hot sun, where God grows a tree for Jonah to have shade and then sends a worm the next day to eat it.  When that makes Jonah mad, God refers back to the fact that Jonah neither planted nor watered it...had nothing to do with it.  It is the same with the people of Ninevah, God explains, and if God wants to spare it....who is Jonah to get all mad about it!!?

Yeap....I'm definitely in a Jonah Mood.  Mad because I understand God's sheer grace and mercy is extended to each of us with a plan for forgiveness....even the those who hurt us and betray our trust.  The problem with living in this anger is that I hear His gentle voice asking me, just as He did Jonah, "What do you have to be angry about?  Did you create this person?  Were you anywhere around when I designed this life?"  My answer to Him is: nothing, nope, and absolutely not!  Please forgive me Lord! 

So, I can live in my Jonah Mood for awhile, I suppose.  I can curl up in the bottom of the boat and try to go to sleep with the storms of life tossing me to and fro.  Or, I can get up and walk on...living in my convictions....not my emotions?  Huh?  What are my convictions you ask?  Pretty simple.....God is a good God and does all things well.  God is a loving and just God and will care for my needs and the needs of my family.  God sees all of our hurts and cares deeply for us as we weep. 

Praying tonight for God to help me to grow in my convictions and to pull me out of my Jonah Mood!!  Praising Him tonight for giving me His word to freely read and reminding me of stories about plan old people like myself.