Cindy Gaskins

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. Romans 15:13 ESV

Feeling the weight of disasters, upheaval, rubble, fire, loss?

And I’m not talking about the headline news of the last few weeks.

This is about

• the single mom taking her last child to college knowing the ache of family dysfunction that goes with her freshman’s packed bags
• the ministry wife who struggles with mental health realities and feels no hope
• the veteran teacher who hears repeated advice from parents as to how classroom management doesn’t fit their child’s expectations
• the senior adult who has no family to visit and whose nourishment of body and mind is diminished
• the couple who sees only exits in their stormy marriage
• the neighbor whose words and attitudes spit out distaste for others
• the co-worker who shakily arrives with hints of morning breath that isn’t coffee
• the results of the biopsy, the scan, the invasive species in your body.

How do we stand up when the waves of trouble, hurt, disbelief, anger and sadness keep knocking our feet out from under us?

Remember and repeat out loud who Jesus is and who we are:

My Rock, my Shield around me, the lifter of my head.  Psalm 3:3

The Shepherd who carries the brokenhearted with compassion and makes me lie down. Psalm 23 and 34

The Redeeming Savior who was wounded for my mess so I could be healed. Isaiah 53:5

The Hope I can count on to grow in me when I trust Him for what I cannot see. Romans 15:13

Maybe the cry is for yourself today. Or maybe you need to cry for somebody. Put on repeat today who our God is and what He can do in our broken, overwhelming world. Jesus is more than enough. Jesus is near.

“They found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening…asking….” Luke 2:46 NIV

School supply sales are happening. New lunch boxes and backpacks are finding new fans. Parents are ready for routines. Teachers are squeezing out the last of summer fun before their wake-up calls are set again! And let’s not forget college orientations and must haves for a dorm room!

Luke 2: 43- 49 reminds us that Jesus was also a student. You know it was the annual family journey to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover. And more than just Jesus’ immediate family was in the entourage. Other relatives and perhaps neighbors from Nazareth were also part of the scene. Were Jesus’ half siblings also on the trip? Could that have been another reason why Mary and Joseph didn’t miss their oldest for a day. Maybe there were other little ones to pay attention to and they trusted their obedient pre-teen.

While Mary and Joseph were traveling back home, Jesus was enjoying class with some of the city’s best teachers. (My inner mother voice can’t help but wonder, did Jesus tell his folks he was “going to class” and they missed it? Did he tell a sibling to tell “mom and dad where I am?” No matter.)

Luke records that Jesus sat as a curious twelve-year-old student. Listening, asking questions, and even giving responses. Responses that impressed the scholars. But not his parents when they found him.  Remember his question to them? “Why were you looking for me?” Yes, Jesus was not a typical child. This classroom was a place of holy curiosity. For Mary and Joseph, it was the scene of their exasperated relief.

Let’s consider these ‘classroom thoughts’:
Am I typically a curious learner?

“I am the Vine, you are the branches….Separated, you can’t produce a thing.” John 15:5, The Message

Something is always blooming in my island neighborhood. Even if it’s not in my yard. As a wanna-be gardener, I have heard “stick it in the ground and see what happens.” 

I took a broken off plumeria branch, planted it and it lived. And bloomed…once. Two years into this particular plant project, there was still no more of the annual blooms. So this Spring, I pruned big time and hoped.  In less than 6 weeks, blooms arrived. And fragrance in my garden. 

About the same time on a neighborhood walk, I picked up another broken off plumeria branch with buds that hadn’t had time to open. Into the garden pot it went and a week later, the buds opened and a new leaf was poking out. 

I’m still a wanna-be gardener.  What happened with the Plumeria’s wasn’t my work. Pure hope. And wonder in the work of our Maker Designer.

Both in my garden and yours, my life and yours, the Father is a master at picking up what is broken, dry, diseased, maybe discarded. God gently finds what we might ignore, cover up, or judge as waste. The Spirit is brilliant with grafting together or pruning and cutting away what is not right in us. The potential of the not yet opened blossoms is cultivated when given his care and attention. 

Sit in your yard, go for a walk, dig in the dirt. Give thanks for God’s work in and for you. Take a bud or a broken branch to your neighbor. Maybe it will be the start of something new.

Be the Hope of Jesus.

“Jesus still made no reply, and Pilate was amazed.” Mark 15:5, NIV

Just for a quick inventory – what do you hear at this moment? Listen.

Where I am, it’s the hum of my fridge with the occasional ice dropping in place, birds blended cacophony outside, a buzz on my phone after I started a Lauren Daigle song.

Silence is a challenge in the 24/7 audible, visual, sensory loaded script of our world. Recently a Lent reading brought a silent pause. Mark’s story in chapter 14 tells us of Jesus’ arrest and the entire Jewish Council presenting him to Pilate. Jesus responds once to Pilate’s questions. And so Pilate says *“Aren’t you going to answer anything? That’s quite a list of accusations.” Still, he said nothing. Pilate was impressed, really impressed.

In the midst of deep trouble, betrayal by both disciples and religious leadership, Jesus is secure in his purpose and silent in his response. And this surprises and impresses Pilate, who really wants to let Jesus go free. But you know, public opinion wins out.

Pondering the silence of Jesus, has me thinking. Has there ever been even one occasion when my silence impressed someone, leaving curiosity, a hope, a longing for understanding?

Silence is more likely to be my response when I miss (should I say betray) the opportunity to speak of Jesus, give a word or take action in His truth or His comfort, or His love. Silence often needs to be the choice to make when I’d rather argue, give my opinion, or justify my action.

We have a glimpse of our Silent Savior in this part of God’s Story. We know before The Word became flesh, creation was spoken and the redemption plan was in place. Jesus came using words, often full of mystery, to show us God’s Kingdom. The silence of God in that mock trial, the abuse and crucifixion didn’t mean weakness or failure. God was still working. It impressed Pilate, a dying thief, a Roman Centurion. And centuries of others!

Maybe in this season of your life, or someone you know, God is being silent. Hold on to hope. Today, may you be mysteriously impressed by the silence of Jesus. And may you be Jesus’ impression in your noisy world.

*Copyright 1994 by Eugene Peterson, The Message

“Remain in me and I will remain in you.” John 15:4

How can it be the last Monday in January? Didn’t we just celebrate New Year’s? Spring already looks loaded. Blossoms may be peeking out; sunny warmth should be sliding in to free up our winter spaces. Calendars are moving us to Easter!

So how are you moving through each day? What is centering you? I have set my phone alarm for daily moments to remind me to take a breath and check my focus on Jesus. You would think after 40 years with Jesus, I would have this completely in sync. Sigh….

Hear these words of Amy Carmichael:

“Blessed are the single-hearted, for they shall enjoy much peace. If you refuse to be hurried and pressed, if you stay your soul on God, nothing can keep you from that clearness of spirit which is life and peace. In that stillness you will know what His will is.”

Amy spent 55 years in India serving the underserved, forgotten, thrown away. In those 55 years, Amy never returned to her home in Ireland. She loved, taught, wrote and lived in the neighborhood of those she gave her life to. Amy’s life habit didn’t include a phone alarm to remind her to be still. It was a cultivated habit, even through pain. The last twenty years of her life was spent living in her bed in pain from a fall.

She sounds like a saint right? Amy would look at you and say ‘and you are one too!’

“Saint” has nothing to do with human competence and everything to do with divine grace so Tyler Stanton reminds us in his book Praying Like Monks, Living Like Fools.

As January comes to an end, take a breath. Hush your rush. Sit in the divine grace that is freely given so that we may live life, His will in our neighborhood.

Sweet Cindy Gaskins

“Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.” Mark 1:33

It’s beginning to look a lot like…

You fill in the blank. A lot like Thanksgiving…Christmas..busy…full…Christmas programs,  cookie swaps, lists, lists, lists?

Jesus knows busy. Look at his time in Mark 1 starting at verse 21

Teaching in the synagogue

Healing a demon possessed man

Visit to Simon Peter’s house and healing Peter’s mother-in-law

Then an evening filled with many sick and demon possessed. The whole town gathered at the door and Jesus healed many…v 33

Then verse 35: Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up…Another day had begun for Jesus. More doors would open, people needing him, a mission to live well.

Busy is real. It’s what we do before the busy that can shape us. What shapes you before the busy? What do you and I do before the busy begins is what gives us strength, perspective, priorities.

Starting or ending the day with words from our compassionate God will help restore His image in us.

Lectio 365 is a daily devotional app that has a regular phrase that starts the devotional: “As I enter prayer now, I pause to be still; to breathe slowly, to re-centre my scattered senses upon the presence of God.”

Pausing on that phrase “to re-centre my scattered senses upon the presence of God” every morning, reminds me I am scattered. But coming into the presence of God Almighty, Jesus my Savior, and the Holy Spirit, my comforter, I can re-center. I can become new again, pliable and surrendered for the day.

That is what Jesus did regularly, often, alone, intentionally. And Jesus was able to finish all the work on earth God had given him. (John 17:4)

What’s at your door today…in your home, at your work station, your car or public transport, your to do list? Are you ready? Jesus is waiting at your heart’s door, ready to come and sit with you.

P.S. Did you get stuck on ‘re-centre’. The writers of Lectio 365 are from the UK and so it is ‘re-centre.’