Mountaintop moments

I spent a week in the mountains with my whole family and rarely watched the news, looked at Facebook, or thought about the world’s events. I was too busy watching my grandkids laugh and play with one another. There were a lot of things to do, see, and experience in the mountains. 

A week later, it was time to come down from the mountain and get back to work.

I knew my first job was to write a blog post for the week, and this one began to write itself on the way home.  

One week later 

It seemed almost shocking to watch the evening news the night I arrived back home. COVID was the first news segment because our hospitals are filling up again. The politicians are making a stand and hoping to get it right. The problem is, everyone is right and wrong in different ways. 

How do we make choices when right and wrong blend together? 

People who didn’t get a vaccine are losing their jobs, privileges, and freedoms. People who did get a vaccine are losing their immunity, their freedoms, and their sense of safety. People who have had COVID have the most immunity but still need to get a vaccine anyway?  

Whom do we blame for the spread of a virus? How does a country founded on freedoms limit freedom? How do we replace rhetoric with resolutions? 

We recognize the realities and the fact that God is still on his throne, and always has been. 

The mountaintop moments 

I loved our week of vacation with our family. It was sweet chaos. It was a change of pace for all of us and a reminder of why God created the concept of family in the beginning. We are supposed to belong to other people in a unique bond of love. The Lord created us to need and enjoy the gift of family. 

I got home, unpacked, and settled into my normal routine. I worked on emails, checked on Facebook, and turned on the evening news. The mountaintop felt far away from the “real world.” It is tough to keep a mountaintop perspective when you head home. 

Part of me wishes I could just live “separate” from the evening news. Someday I will. For now, God has called us to have mountaintop moments but live “in the world.” 

A new perspective that isn’t new

I was driving home when I began to think about writing this blog post. I drove through small towns and big cities. I drove past estates, homes, apartments, and trailers. I drove past people who had everything they owned in a backpack or shopping cart. I drove past people in masks and people without them. I drove past prosperity, poverty, and everything in between. 

I watched the evening news and heard different opinions but few facts. I wished for the mountaintop but was glad to be home. I missed the chaos but appreciated the quiet. And I realized that the trip had given me a new perspective that isn’t new. 

This world will always be “mixed up.” Truth isn’t found on the evening news because that isn’t where truth is valued—or defined. 

If you completed last week’s homework assignment, reading all of Psalm 119, you read, “Your righteousness is righteous forever, and your law is true” (Psalm 119:142). You also read, “Forever, O Lᴏʀᴅ, your word is firmly fixed in the heavens” (Psalm 119:89). 

When will our culture put itself back together? The answer to that question is made clear in Scripture.  

We will calm down, heal, be kinder, and be better when we live according to God’s righteous laws. That has always been true, and it always will be true. 

What is the new perspective that isn’t new? The culture is not going to walk with God’s values. God’s people are called to do that. Some in the culture will eventually follow what “works,” but most will not. Jesus said, “For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few” (Matthew 7:14). 

Biblically, we shouldn’t hope for something that God has told us will never be true. Biblically, it is God’s people who prove his reality, not the world. 

Our family of faith 

One of the sweetest memories I have of our trip to the mountains was listening to my seven-year-old granddaughter talk about God with her brother and cousins. I’m so grateful that my sons and their wives want their children to be faithful and are raising them with God’s word as truth.  

I love that my family has chosen to be faithful. I hope and pray that all of them will continue to make biblical choices for the rest of their lives. 

But, it is important to remember that Jesus didn’t say everyone in the world is our family. Our brothers and sisters are the people who share our faith and our future in heaven. Every Christian has a BIG family, and our Father would like for it to continue to grow even larger. 

Make your dad proud 

We had a great week in the mountains with our “family.” It is a sweet joy to see my grown sons and their wives parent their kids. There were several times I thought, “My cup runneth over,” even as my grandkids were “running over” each other! It was sweet chaos, and I’m grateful we had that time together. We are proud of our family. The Lord has a similar perspective on his kids. He has always seen us as his family. We are dearly loved and cared about. 

Night is coming

Our kids put their kids to bed each night while Jim and I picked up the toys, swept the crumbs, and straightened the chairs. We wanted it to be ready for everyone when morning came. 

When the world seems chaotic, remember that Scripture promised “the night is coming” (John 9:4). It’s time to get ready for whatever the next day will bring. There will always be chaos and things that need to be cleaned up and straightened out. That is the world we live in. The Christian’s job is to work hard to keep this messy world a little cleaner. Our “joy comes with the morning” (Psalm 30:5). 

Family is my great joy. One day the morning will come and one day I will live forever on the mountaintop with the Lord, surrounded with all of you who are family too. The chaos in the world is real, but God’s peace and love are real as well.  

One day our mountaintop moments will last forever.

God Didn’t Need to Rest

God didn’t need to rest. He chose to rest. 

He wanted to set a great example for all of us. 

But, as is typical, most of us don’t follow his example very well.

We were created to sleep.

Did you know there is a National Sleep Foundation? 

There is an interesting article that you might want to read about American sleep habits. I won’t quote statistics, but most Americans don’t get enough sleep, and that is affecting almost everything else in their lives.

 Another article provided the National Sleep Foundation’s new set of guidelines. Adults have been given a “range” for recommended hours of sleep per night. According to their comprehensive research, we need anywhere from seven to nine hours of sleep each night. If you are over sixty-five, that range is seven to eight.

Are you getting enough sleep? I do.

I’m one of those who’s blessed with the ability to sleep, most of the time. My mom has told me that I was the only kid in Kindergarten who had to be woken up after “rest time.” I still like an afternoon nap! 

I go to bed early and get up early. I write most of my blogs around 5:30 a.m. I’ve discovered a unique link between coffee and the voice of God in my life! The Holy Spirit has a strange propensity to use my caffeinated brain for creative purposes. 

I love to sleep because I love its benefits.

Why did God create us with a need for sleep?

I embrace the chance to sleep each night. 

One of my favorite moments is when I am done with the day and crawl into bed. One of my other favorite moments is when I realize it’s morning and I get to brew that first cup of coffee! 

If God made us to sleep, he must have had a great reason. Consider these possibilities: 

  • If we are sleeping, we aren’t sinning. Imagine how many sins we have escaped just because we were sound asleep!
  • If we aren’t sleeping, we aren’t dreaming. I wonder how many “un-remembered” dreams have been lessons from God. What if the Lord is speaking to us as we sleep? We know that a lot of dreams are recorded in Scripture and were used by God to teach or lead.
  • God wanted rest to be one of his blessings. Don’t you feel grateful when you wake up from a good night’s sleep? The next time, consider that feeling to be his blessing.

God rested from his work.

God didn’t sleep, but he did rest. He stopped working. Every summer, I try to follow that example for a couple of weeks! 

I have a stack of books I’m looking forward to reading. I will also spend some of my time just enjoying God’s creation. Rest should be for our bodies, minds, and, especially, our souls. 

I’m looking forward to not blogging, not studying, and, hopefully, not “thinking” about work for a couple of weeks. I’m going to rest instead.

I’m grateful for all of you.

Before I “quit” for a couple of weeks, I wanted to tell you that I’m grateful for each of you, my readers. I consider it a privilege to write each week. I love God’s word, and I love the chance to share it with all of you. 

So, I leave by sharing a passage I think all of us should consider for these weeks of “rest” from a blog post. Psalm 127 is attributed to Solomon and is called a “Psalm of Ascent.” It is part of a collection of Psalms used by the Jewish people as they made their annual religious pilgrimages to Jerusalem.

Passover, Pentecost, the Festival of Lights, and other holidays required a great deal of commitment and effort for most of the Jewish nation. They left their homes and their work, then walked great distances in order to ascend Mt. Zion and worship at the temple.

Solomon wrote these words to encourage people to make that effort to “rest” from their daily work and worship their God. He said: 

Unless the Lord builds the house,
    those who build it labor in vain.
Unless the Lord watches over the city,
    the watchman stays awake in vain.
It is in vain that you rise up early
    and go late to rest,
eating the bread of anxious toil;
    for he gives to his beloved sleep.
—Psalm 127:1–2

Rest is not time wasted.

Our culture measures our success differently than God does. 

King Solomon was probably the hardest “working” person in Scripture. But he was also one of the wisest men. He wrote that Psalm for our spiritual benefit. None of us want to live our lives “in vain.”

So, get some rest. Get your sleep. Receive those things as you would receive any other blessing. 

God created us with the need for rest and meets that need so we can know we are blessed.

Have a happy couple of weeks—I plan to! 

Blessings . . .  

Janet