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S. A. J. Lyttek, a multiple award-winning writer, always loved writing, but didn’t arrive at the profession in the typical manner. After college and graduate school, she plunged into government consulting. In this environment, she discovered a knack for writing tests, interviews and other measurements. That soon became the focus of her career—reigniting her love for the written word. Thus captivated, she spent evenings freelancing “fun” writing including short stories, poems, articles and cards. When her eldest was a toddler, she quit full-time work to stay home and write. Eager to spend more time with her children, homeschooling intrigued her. From preschool through high school, she homeschooled both sons while continuing to freelance. While an integral part of the homeschooling community, she developed and taught writing classes to a generation of homeschoolers. Married to her childhood sweetheart, Gary, Mrs. Lyttek loves to share her commitment to learners of all ages and her fascination with the written word.
For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win the more; and to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews; to those who are under the law, as under the law, that I might win those who are under the law; to those who are without law, as without law (not being without law toward God, but under law toward Christ), that I might win those who are without law; to the weak I became as weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. Now this I do for the gospel’s sake, that I may be partaker of it with you. (1 Corinthians 9:19-23, NKJV)
Paul’s words in the quote above give us a snapshot of living the second command of Jesus: love your neighbor as yourself.
It isn’t easy. And passages like this show us just how complicated it can be.
Any “this day” that we encounter has a variety of people within it. Those people can be pleasant or unpleasant, kind or cruel, God-lovers or not. We often have no control over which people intersect our day, but none of them cross our paths without the knowledge of God. And none of the people we see, talk to, or respond to are without the stamp of God. That means, how we treat them is of utmost importance to the God we serve. It always has been.
Near the beginning of time, Cain grew jealous of his brother Abel’s right-standing before God and killed him. Then he asked the famous (or infamous) statement, “Am I my brother’s keeper?”
Based on that line, it seems Cain assumed the answer was ‘no’. He seemed to think that since we each have our own judgment before God that how we respond to others doesn’t matter. If God had been snarky, he could’ve answered, “Of course. Didn’t I make you for community?” Instead, God exiled Cain, leading the latter to learn the need to keep and be kept. Eventually, Cain would establish his own city, proving the antithesis to his own statement.
People need each other. Therefore, we are to respond to that need as Jesus did.
Fine that I just typed that, and believe that, but what does it mean in practice? What does it mean this day?
First, we need to respond to those who exhaust us from a point of prayer and strength of Spirit. Read the gospels and note how many times Jesus went away to pray and seek his Father after or before a day where people demanded a lot from him. We are never meant to suffer through the “difficult ones” in our own strength.
Second, we need to respond to those who energize us with restraint and compassion. Here, think about when Jesus visited with Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. He fellowshipped with them, but he did not demand of them. He knew they were not His Father and could not fill the needs of his soul. But they were friends to share time with. We can’t expect those we enjoy to push all our happiness buttons.
Third, we need to treat those who dislike us, hate us, or despise us with respect through prayer. The most difficult people in our lives can only change, via God’s intervention or our perception, through prayer. I could tell you several stories of people who despised me and then I prayed for who eventually respected me. Did most end up my friends? Absolutely not. (One did.) But God changed both my reaction to the person I prayed for and how that person interacted with me. Sometimes the respect at the end was grudging, but it was still respect.
Fourth, when we are alone. Sometimes, we are our own worst enemies and need to pray about how we act we respond to solitude. We can exhaust ourselves with expectations or steal from tomorrow’s energy to force happiness in the now. We need to treat ourselves honestly, as fragile and fallible creations of our heavenly Father. Without Jesus, without the indwelt Spirit, we can do nothing of value. Here, more than any other people interaction, we need prayer to see both our deceptively evil heart (Jeremiah 17:9) and our God-given potential as works of art (Ephesians 2:10) and act in the balance of both. We can only do that as God gives us wisdom.
This day’s people are the beings we may have opportunity to see forever. Even if we won’t, even if they have chosen against God, they are still worthy of our respect because they descended from Adam and Eve. But we never know for sure if a kind word or act might be the teeny pebble that eventually tilts them towards faith. We never know unless God pulls back the curtain. And since we never know, we need to interact with all this day’s people in love, through prayer.
In spite of what many philosophies today preach, eternity exists. It exists for every human being ever conceived. The innocent (those who perish before they can choose right from wrong) and the repentant will receive eternal life. The guilty and the unrepentant receive eternal death.
It all started with a choice. Once upon a time in a garden, there was a ‘this day’ when God said “but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you[f] shall surely die.” (Genesis 2:17) And a few ‘this day’s later, Eve chose poorly because she wanted. She coveted (later that would be against the 10th Commandment) both the fruit that looked good and the knowledge and position of God.
But also the serpent twisted, as he’s been known to do, what God said.
There’s this little matter of verb tense.
When God gives his command, he issues an ongoing future. Basically, his command’s consequences mean “dying, you shall surely die.” I think we can all agree that physically we begin dying as soon as we begin living. It’s part of the process now. But in the Garden, Eve (and Adam) had no decay. They had no hint of death. Most of the biological systems we understand now could not have existed in such a world. In this world, in this day, we are continually dying and advancing toward death. It’s exactly what the command of God foretold.
But the serpent was both honest in what it said and completely deceptive. Because it said, “You will not die,” meaning that you won’t keel over as soon as you take a bite. And Adam and Eve didn’t. They would each live for hundreds of years.
Eternity for humankind began when God breathed his Spirit into the two of them on day six of creation week. It required that touch of the divine to access eternity. And from the beginning, they were meant to have eternal life. But choosing against God set death in motion.
This is why it is fitting that in the book of Revelation, Jesus declares death is conquered. When the demons and those who support them are thrown into the second death, all who remain will have death purged from them. Nothing about them, physical, spiritual or emotional will ever die again.
In this eternal day, as every day truly is for the Christian, we straddle the current reality that includes the pain and suffering of death in all its iterations and the eternal reality of our neverending life. Both are true for the believer. Both are choices for this day.
Everything we choose nudges us closer to death or life. Everything.
This day is our first taste of eternity.
It’s not that choosing the mini-deaths will take away the eternal life promised us through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. Nothing can do that. What those poor choices do is take away the joy of that eternity in the moment. For that step the wrong way, we taste despair instead of hope.
Physically, as I mentioned earlier, we begin dying at conception. Every day parts of us die only to be replaced. As we age past maturity, the pieces that die get replaced increasingly by less effective or less vibrant equivalents. It’s part of why we physically grow old.
But God’s plan spiritually is for us to grow into our eternity. “Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” (1 Corinthians 4:16-17) If we choose life more than death and teach ourselves to favor the things of life, the things of God, our spirit will become increasingly vibrant.
This day is the only day of eternity we can experience. It is the only day we can actively choose the things of God rather than the things of this world.
I don’t know about you, but I want to choose well. I want to nurture and grow a healthy spirit that’s ready for the other side of eternity.
On the cruise we went in December, the halls of the ship had fish on the carpets. The white fish pointed to the front of the ship. But many of my favorite activities were at the back of the ship. To get there, you had to follow the few, the proud, the red fish. I loved pointing in their direction like an explorer and saying, “Follow the red fishies!”
It felt good to go the direction of the few rather than the many. (And it didn’t hurt that the ‘good’ fish were my favorite color.)
I’ve always been a bit (or more) of a rebel. That probably contributed to my decision to homeschool. But then, once I began that path, I rebelled again. I didn’t do anything traditional or follow a set curriculum. I made sure the basics of math and reading were covered, but otherwise I tried to do what fit us best in the moment.
As a child, the sure way for me to get into trouble was to tell me that I couldn’t do something. As soon as I heard those words, I would try to figure out a way to do what I wasn’t supposed to. But that reaction wasn’t just with authorities and parents. I did that with my peers as well which often got me labeled as strange. I didn’t try to be popular or do what was expected socially.
The problem was always who to rebel against? Because especially when I hit my teenage years, there were conflicting don’t do X messages.
“Am I leading a rebellion,” said Jesus, “that you have come out with swords and clubs to capture me? (Mark 14:48)
The answer to that question is ‘yes’. But it is a spiritual rebellion. It was only once I committed my life to serving our Lord that I discovered the most fulfilling rebellion of all.
Then Jesus went through the towns and villages, teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem. Someone asked him, “Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?”
He said to them, “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to.” (Luke 13:22-24)
Jesus himself says that his way is the way of the few. His way is countercultural. It is against the flow. It is against the way of the world.
Sometimes, I agree, it’s easy to let the flow pull you along. But one image I like to fall back on is walking up a sand dune. If you stop moving and let the flow pull you, you’ll wind up at the bottom. And trust me, that’s where all the biting things are. You don’t want to slide to the bottom of the dune.
Going against the masses and following Jesus is being the ultimate rebel. But it makes you a rebel with a cause. The best cause ever. Drawing others to what they see of him in you.
It’s an adventure to follow the red fish. Marked forever with the blood of his wounds that gives us path into eternity.
Adventure
There was a wind in the sails
And a spark to the soul
Didn’t know where we were going
But we knew we had to go
We had to try.
We were reaching for the glory
Of walking the unknown
With hope the end would answer
The question on our brow
The why and how.
Each of us found answers
And we took the riddle home
Where they wrote us into history
And shrunk us to a page
A written cage.
Dreams were so much bigger when
The solutions had grandeur
But culture’s boiled it to one plus one
And hands us written answers.
There’s no wind in this sail,
This soul’s spark fizzles in the rain.
We know where we are going
But we don’t have to go
Don’t have to try.
We swallow all the answers
Like rations from the hold
To walk the trodden path
Toward an end that will not justify
The questions in our soul--
They go unknown.
Oh Lord, give me a sail,
An adventure, a cause.
Let me stretch beyond toward glory
And learn to seek the holy
To know my God.
What are you waiting for? Follow the red fishie on the grandest adventure. Rebel today.
Almost without my noticing
Spring has blossomed,
Opened its arms
To summer.
The leaves are losing yellow youthfulness
And uncurl their fingers in green strength.
Flowers grasp beauty vigorously
As seedlings crack the earth
In their eagerness.
In the quiet dawn,
If you listen,
You can even hear the blades of grass,
Shouting, “We live!”
The calendar may claim that spring starts next week, but the earth and the people enjoying today’s sunshine would differ on that. Spring is here.
That doesn’t mean that winter is gone for good. This region of the world loves to offer winter a last hurrah in March or even April. But spring has staked its claim in every flowering tree, robin hunting for a tasty worm, and warm breeze that urges you to remove coats and sweaters.
While fall (or autumn) is my favorite season for the sheer beauty of it, spring is a close second. Spring is when life comes from death. Spring announces Jesus’ resurrection to everyone who opens their eyes to see.
The browned lawns of winter perform their mystic color-changing feat…becoming increasingly green with every ray of sunshine that encourages them.
The lion’s teeth* claw their way up from crevices and stony soil, eager to reflect the face of the sun they love.
Crocuses, daffodils, hyacinths and other early bulbs erupt from the earth, often still covered in frost, to announce the change of seasons.
Deciduous trees, each according to their own kind, either bloom or bud. Both actions broadcast their intent to reclaim their summer foliage.
Squirrels race across the lawns looking for buried treasure or the perfect place to bury a recent find.
Seeking Spring
When the wind has blown the moon
Clear, without spot,
Carved with a cookie cutter
Out of the twilight sky,
You can see the dead leaves
Skuttle across the road--
Stiff crabs of autumn seeking
Tropical breezes.
This time that is not quite,
This season of betweens,
Draws me into the waiting
And I treasure its gentle breath.
Spring is the time when you can’t tell from day to day what changes will come. What buds will be tomorrow’s blooms? Where will new life appear? When will the next bird return?
Watching spring, watching the transformations and seizing their joy can remind us how to live. We can choose this day to embrace what is new. We can step boldly into the explosions of color and let them teach us how to exchange the dust of the past for abundance of the future.
Our God is the creator of the eternal spring. He will always offer plenty for our nothing. Or as Isaiah 61 says of the Messiah, he will offer “comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.”
I’ll end with one of my favorite poems that has been published several times.
For Every Action There is an Equal and Opposite Reaction
The starless cold of a damp winter night
Hardened my heart.
A slow freeze of arctic ice.
Thaw will come
Sure as
summer thrives on winter's silent life
birds fly north in spring
growth feeds on decay.
My heart will turn to joy
When the season to mourn
The changing of the guards
Is complete
And the celebration of the new
Begins again.
To everything there is a season...
This day, embrace spring and let it renew you from within.
*dent de lion means lion’s tooth. We call them dandelions.