Livening our Fire

I read a quote recently from two married couple whose excitement and romance dissolved after their wedding.  They described their relationship like slowly fading embers from a deserted campfire.  That one afternoon was the pinnacle of everything for them, and the rest was a descent.

How indescribably sad!

Jeff and I have been married for four months now, and I know that the real fire in our relationship has only just begun to light.  The wedding was just setting up the logs and now it's time for the flame.  We're on a journey to learn marriage as we learn each other.

I see a so many things that have been livening our fire way beyond the wedding day, but here's three: cherishing the past, delighting in our present, and shaping ourselves for the future.

CHERISHING THE PAST

I have the most beautiful engagement and wedding rings that I've ever seen.  They're my favorite.  I've never seen anything else that I'd ever want more.  No joke: they're blindingly sparkly, yellow gold, and completely thought up by my thoughtful man.  My heart stopped when I saw the engagement ring for the first time.  My whole body echoed with delight and pleasure for weeks.  I was worse than a teenager texting.  I couldn't keep my eyes off that sparkle.

Our natural response to adapt can be a big vice when we're trying to live a life continually appreciating delights.  It's easy for me to grow used to this treasure sitting on my finger and glance past it.  But I can choose to keep the glow fresh--in my heart and on my hand.  Practically speaking, that means that I clean my ring every morning.  A drop of dish soap and water with my mini brush keeps both rings sparkling up a storm.  Diamonds are like fire.  They never sparkle in the same way twice.  It's incredible to get to watch and think about what it symbolizes.  Oddly, that 20 second habit warms my heart too.  It reminds me afresh how incredible my man is when I'm prone to be selfish and entitled.

Precious married and unmarried people--I exhort you to do whatever you can to keep the sparkle sparkly in your life and in your heart.

DELIGHTING IN THE PRESENT

There is so much treasure to marvel at in our present:

• I get to know Jeff better than anyone else and vice versa.  
• Jeff knows the quirks in me and loves me even when I'm unlovely. 
• Neither of us is going anywhere, so we're safe to be just who we are.  
• We get to love each other in brand new ways. 
• Jeff is amazingly selfless and caring toward me.  That's unlike anything I've ever experienced. 
• We're at the very beginning--I feel like I barely know this man and I'm excited to learn more. 

SHAPING OURSELVES FOR THE FUTURE

We lead ourselves toward the future we choose.  I want to run toward a future where I'm a person who Jeff would fall head over heels for in an instant.  I want to follow God's call to give my life to Jeff as a delight to him and to the Lord.  Perpetual gift giving.  That sets us ablaze like nothing else.

Recipes

When I moved out of my parents house, my mom gave me a thick recipe book full of handwritten family favorites written in her beautiful cursive.

Then I got engaged to this wonderful man and all the sudden the world swept us up in celebration.  Bridal showers brought us stacks of new recipes with old favorites from other families.  Then my precious mother-in-law gave me a recipe book full of my new family's favorites spanning all the way back to great grandparents.

Initially as I started making friends with cooking, I was in survival mode.  I scoffed at anything with more than 6 ingredients or anything that needed more than half an hour to cook.  All those recipes sat unlooked at.

But the Lord has helped me to grow so much with cooking.  After I found more of a rhythm, one cozy night I pulled out all the recipes and got to work.  I sorted, ranked, organized and came out with two full binders of compiled treasures.  And now our meals are fully immersed with these recipes and we love it!  The variety, creativity and flavor of what's eaten in the Davenport home has increased exponentially.

Recipes are all around me--some for food and some for living.  And when I look at my heart when it hears wisdom, it still hasn't grown out of survival mode.  If things are bad, I search for the quickest remedy possible. But if I hear someone giving a recipe for living that sounds overly complicated or unnecessary, I don't really want to hear it. I'll nod and then leave the advice ignored in a stack somewhere in my brain.

But what if I did a better job at recording, strategizing and following the life recipes all around me?  I want a richer character, a deeper love, and a clearer vision to see the Lord.  Might this help?  Were I to lock my pride in a closet and let other people's wisdom affect me deeply, might that produce a more savory heart?  Definitely worth a try.  

Loving Others is Loving Jesus

Speaking in the voice of Jesus, Henry Van Dyke interpreted Matthew 25:40 by saying, "Every deed of love and mercy, done to man is done to Me."

Imagine Jesus is walking up to your home.  

Let's remember for a moment who He is.  He's the King of kings who also bends down and washes feet.  He's the Perfect One with the holes in His hands.  He was crushed by our sin to set us free.  He took what was worst about us and then freely gave us a redeemed relationship with God, heaven, eternity, life, the Holy Spirit and purpose.

This Jesus, imagine He walks into the room with you.  

What would you do?  

What would you say?  What would be happening in your heart?  

Were it me, here's what might happen.  Pandemonium and tears.  Squeals of delight and tight tight hugs.  Worship and awe.  Dropping everything else and doing anything to just sit with Him or serve Him.    Then leaving anything else behind to follow that Man wherever He goes.  

There will be a day when we get to be in the same room as Jesus.  Doesn't that sound a trumpet somewhere deep inside you?  One day faith will be traded for sight.  

Until that happens, Jesus hasn't left us empty-handed.  He's given us this mysterious secret for the meantime: we can live out our pandemonium and tears for Jesus now by loving others.  

Have you ever been so excited about something that you couldn't help but embrace some unknowing person?  That's what we can do now, and Jesus knows that it's for Him.  

So I can hug people tight and somehow I've just embraced Him.  Beautiful.  

Jesus, my heart pines for You.  I want to see You and thank You and be with You. Thank You for showing me how I can channel my excitement now and You know exactly what it means.  I pray for a sticky mind to remember this secret when temptation comes.  Help me to fight to love instead of treating You cheaply by not loving someone.

He'll Get Us There

"Ring the bells that still can ring, 

Forget your perfect offering.

There is a crack in everything,

That's how the light gets in."  (Leonard Cohen)

Do what you can, don't give up. 

Stop up your itching, doubting ears,

The ears that hear failure's whispers. 

And sing this to your tears:

    Jesus is our Success,

    Jesus is our Success.

Feel the hand that's holding yours?

He has us.  He keeps holding on

Even when we trip and stumble. 

Get up sweet, precious one, 

     

He'll get us there.

Roses

"Where you tend a rose, my lad, a thistle cannot grow."

France's Hodgson Burnett, 1859-1924

What if we were built for more than just pulling out the weeds in our lives, more than just fighting off sins and bad habits?  

What if what's inside us is actually this rich, organic substance that incubates and displays God's beauty?  

Colossians 3 challenges us to pull out the weeds in our lives, but then it spends just as long pleading with us to grow the flowers by putting on righteousness.

I've been too short-sighted lately.  But now I see that I want a life of roses, not just empty soil.  And isn't it so true that higher goals always make maintenance work so much easier?  It's easy to clean your house when you have company coming.  But if it's your only project for the day, all the sudden it's daunting.  

ROSES.

- In my marriage, I want to give my life away again and again to Jeff.  I want to constantly be changed into someone who deeply loves and is loved.  Soil would just be pleasant cohabitation--surely the soil God has given me is destined for more than just that.

- In my job, I want to work knowing that everything I do is directly for Jesus.  I want to do as much as I can for as long as I can as hard as I can because I love Him.  That's what a rose looks like--not just the sandbox of meeting expectations.

- In my friendships, I want to search out and discover the greatness God has put into these precious people He has me around.  I want to be a friend like Jonathan was to David.  Soil would be cordial conversations to make me feel better.  There's so much more hat can be entailed in 'living a life worthy of the Lord.'

Lord, I am sorry for settling for empty soil.  Thank You for being patient with me.  I know that unless You build the house (or me, the plant), we work in vain.  I pray for beautiful roses to sprout up in this dusty soul You've given me.  I want people to see the flowers You grow and marvel at Your creativity.  Here I am Lord.  

Every Place

"Lord, make me see Thy glory in every place."  Michelangelo

Every place, Lord.

You are everywhere.  I am sorry for how I've missed you in so much of the life You've given me.  But You've been there.  No more missing You!  I want to see Your glory even in the insomnia, the disappointments and the hard days.  Even in the traffic or the incessant busyness--I know that You're there.  Please open my eyes to see you.

When I see You, then You add color and music and life to the deadness.  I'd be a fool to settle for anything less.

Our Leaning Plant

We got this little plant for Christmas.  We don't know what kind of plant it is, but it's fun to see it shoot out of the dirt.  Jeff has been babying it big time.  Since he's currently out of town, he gave me somber instructions to "give it some loving" while he's away.  He knows that I only water plants once a week, whereas this little guy is used to being watered everyday.  So I've watered it daily, but I've stopped short of Jeff's pampering.  As the sun goes down, Jeff will keep moving the plant so it stays in the rays.  Way above my pay grade.

It's changing so fast!  

Much like me.  The Lord has me in this clear place of growth where I can see the changes almost daily.  He's building new foundations, new beams and truths in my soul.  I am different, but I'm not exactly sure what I am yet.  And my wonderful Jeff is taking impeccable care of me which is sparking all of this newness.

It's scary sometimes.  What is being built in me?  What in the world am I fit for?  Who am I now, and who was I before?  I'm tempted to press into these questions too far and then all the sudden, fear reigns and the future is dark.  

But I love looking at this little plant.  The only thing I notice it doing is stretching out toward the sun.  Beyond that, it's just sitting there as the sun grows it.

John 12:46 teaches that Jesus is our Light, our Sun.  By Him, we grow and change.  So I'll take a lesson from this little plant.  I don't know what to do with all this newness.  So I'll just lean into the Lord my Light and watch Him grow me into exactly who He's building me to be.  

Lord, I open my heart to the changes You're making and the ones You have yet to make.  By all means, bring on the change and grow me as big or as small as You'd like.  I'm right where I'm supposed to be when I'm in Your light.