TerryLema

There are many things that I want to do but cannot do anymore because of aging and health issues. Some are trivial, some are important. But probably the one thing I really want to do again is jump! Oh, I don’t mean that I want to play hopscotch or jump rope with the little girls next door (although that would be fun!). I mean I want to dance and leap in worship again!

I have been watching videos of the new songs I am learning. When I see Charity Gayle jumping for joy as she sings “Echo (In Jesus’ Name),” or I watch Phil Wickham dance when he sings about the joy in the “House of the LORD,” I want to join them. Unfortunately, I lost my jump a decade ago.

I want to dance and leap as David danced and leaped.  “David was dancing with all his might before the Lord wearing a linen ephod….King David leaping and dancing before the Lord.” [2 Samuel 6:14-16 HCSB]

David’s wife was ashamed of him for his exuberance before the LORD. I am sure there are those today who think being exuberant in worship is excessive – BUT I LOVE IT! I want to see our young people so full of the joy of the LORD that they are dancing and leaping as David did before the LORD.

And I am promised that one day when the Redeemed of the LORD return to God, I will have my jump back. Because then “the lame will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute will sing for joy, for water will gush in the wilderness, and streams in the desert….” [Isaiah 35:6 HCSB]

For now, I will have to settle for leaping for joy in my heart!

I post a quote daily on my personal Facebook page called “JoyBook.” Sometime the quote is comical (“Always go to other people’s funerals, otherwise they won’t come to yours.” Yogi Berra). Other times the quote is more serious.

Recently I posted one that really made me think. “Here’s the paradox. We can fully embrace God’s love only when we recognize how completely unworthy of it we are.”  [Ann Tatlock]

Paul wrote. “This saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance: ‘Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners’—and I am the worst of them.” [1 Timothy 1:15 HCSB]

I am a lawbreaker. I have failed to keep the first and greatest commandment—to love God with all my heart and soul. I have gone astray. I have rebelled against God’s laws. I have tried to run as far away from God as possible.

I may not have persecuted the church, as Paul did, but I am a lawbreaker nonetheless. My sins are many and have dotted my life with stains that nothing I tried would wash away.

BUT GOD.  But God loved me. And because of His great love shown through the sacrifice of Christ Jesus, my status was changed in 1973 from lawbreaker to child of God. My stains were covered with the precious blood of Jesus. I now strive each day to keep as near to my Father as I can.

I deserve none of God’s love. I am completely unworthy of it. AND YET. Still. He loves. Me. You.

As difficult (and as glorious) as that is to fully embrace, embrace it we must.

I was thinking about my mother this morning. Because of her mental and emotional problems, she was often a difficult personality. She was intelligent and musically talented, but her one prominent trait was that she thought the world revolved around her. We did not know at the time that there was a label for that trait–narcissism.

As she aged, my mother’s hearing worsened but she would not get hearing aids. That often caused her to not only not hear what was being said, but to mistake what she heard. She once told me that she threw out all her pork chops because she heard on the radio that eating pork gave you “Amtraks” (anthrax).

But as I thought about her this morning, my favorite story of her old age was the “Saga of the Macaroons.” For some reason, my mother became enthralled with coconut macaroons a few years before she died. They were always part of her grocery order, and she ate them every day, many times a day.

One day she called me in a panic and said that she had gone grocery shopping and there must have been a “run on coconut macaroons” as there were none on the shelves. I asked her if she was sitting in her motorized cart while she shopped, and she said yes. I asked her if she only looked at the shelves at eye level from her cart. She said yes. I asked her if she “looked up” to see them on the upper shelves (where they were usually kept). She said no.

Looking up is extremely important. In Luke 21, Jesus told His disciples about the things that would happen prior to His return. He described signs of the times and then gave a warning. “Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near.” [Luke 21:28 NKJV]

My mother missed having her coconut macaroons because she failed to “look up.” We can miss far more if we fail to “look up” from this life and see Jesus.

My mornings are routine. Coffee. Blanket (if the house is cold). Find my rocker/recliner and take and record my blood glucose levels and my blood pressure. Then I open my computer. I send out and post my daily devotions (via email, website, and Facebook). Then I check my bank account.

That is my morning routine. When it is completed, I open my two email accounts. From there it is anything but routine. For example, this morning … ZipRecruiter (not sure how I got enrolled in that) found several jobs they think I might like—one working in a warehouse.

My daily recipe was for several kinds of soups and chilies (it is supposed to be close to 90 degrees today)

I got an update from my congressman and first “dibs” on a new melt at Panera. I can also find discounts on liposuction, new windows, bankcards, and knee pain relief. And, of course, there are the usual phishing emails that are attempting to steal my money.

But each morning there are a couple emails that I look forward to opening. My daily Bible verses. Today, I was reminded that “The one who lives under the protection of the Most High dwells in the shadow of the Almighty.” [Psalm 91:1 HCSB]

And Paul prayed this: “that [my] love will keep on growing in knowledge and every kind of discernment, so that [I] can approve the things that are superior and can be pure and blameless in the day of Christ.” [Philippians 1:9-10 HCSB]

What better way to spend the day than growing in the knowledge that I live under the protection of the Most High … and dwell in the shadow of the Almighty! Amen.