Liquid Salt

Jesus said, “I have come as a light to shine in this dark world, so that all who put their trust in me will no longer remain in the darkness.â€? – John 12:46

I was thinking recently about lighthouses. Did you know that lighthouses have been around since before Jesus? I did a little research and learned the first recorded lighthouse was built in about 280 B.C. and rose to an amazing 450 feet (think 45-story skyscraper). It housed an actual open fire at the top. Can you imagine the poor soul that had to climb the steps or ladders to reach the top of the lighthouse to keep the fire going?

Throughout the years, lighthouses have helped seafarers far and wide skirt the dangers of a rocky cliff or show their way home on a dark and lonely night. Its ever present beacon of light reaches out into the depths of darkness and projects its brilliance into the world. The lighthouse has a simple job to do. It doesn’t care where you are from, or where you are going. It’s only job is to continue to shine its light for all those who need to see it. At one time, lighthouses were so important, they had caretakers that lived inside them. Keepers of the light would risk life and limb to ensure the light was never extinguished.

God wants us to be lighthouses. He created us, just as man created those lighthouses, in all different shapes and sizes, in different backgrounds and stages of life. No matter where we have been, or where we are going, God wants us to carry a light too. The light we are made to carry is one of hope and everlasting life. We are made to carry Jesus in our hearts.

Jesus said to the people, “I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t be stumbling through the darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.” – John 8:12

We are so blessed to be created in such a beautiful way. God intends for us to carry Jesus with us, wherever we go. And it is His light that should shine from us, through whatever darkness there is to face, through whatever sin and despair is trying to darken our lives. We are made to carry His light, and to shine on those in darkness.

And you want to know the best part? Jesus is our caretaker. We are simply a building, and although we are all unique and beautiful in God’s eyes, our true beauty is in the light we carry. Every time we study His word, our light gets brighter. Every time we bow our heads and praise our Heavenly Father for the blessings he bestows upon us with every breath we take, our light gets stronger. Every time we speak His name, raise Him up and sing His praises, our light grows stronger. It is His light that casts hope into the hopeless, courage into the fearful, and love into the faithless. His light removes the darkness of sin in our lives and replaces it with the beauty of God. We have been given the opportunity to stand on that cliff, cast His light into the darkness, and spread His love throughout the world.

Our light should be seen by everyone, all the time, every day. And it’s our job to keep that light going. We cannot be flashlights that only shine their little narrow beams in emergencies or times of trouble. Our light must be strong, consistent and brilliant. The light of the world! Do you think the light of the world should be a flashlight? Be a lighthouse. Be God’s lighthouse.

Tags: Relationship by sonya
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Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed. – Proverbs 15:22

As you may know from my wife, I like to cook. Not just open-the-box-and-pour-out-the-hamburger-helper cooking, but hey-this-recipe-has-47-ingredients-that-must-be-prepared-in-exact-order, in-the-light-of-a-full-moon, while-chanting-kum-by-ya cooking. This has accounted for some good dishes and some very, very bad ones. When I’m making something that doesn’t require a masters in the culinary arts, I do pretty well. I’ve even managed to re-create some Emeril recipes and not had them flop. However, once in a while I over-step my bounds.

Some time ago, we went with friends to a local Thai restaurant. I fell in love with Pad Thai. Being that we have not been back, and I have been craving the stuff, I attempted to make Pad Thai a few days ago. I say attempted, because my poor wife ran from the house in terror, dogs in the neighborhood were barking at the smell and even my brother wouldn’t eat it (he said something about not feeling well, but I’m not sure that wasn’t till after I started cooking). Although it was edible (I can eat anything), I can not honorably call my creation Pad Thai. I followed the instructions to the letter, which is not something I do every time. What I ended up with looked more like over-cooked shrimp in brown noodles with little bits of yellow (egg) floating around. In short, a failed plan.

I have discovered through trial and error (much error) that I am best inclined to create dishes that I have some type of background in: things my mother made (and then showed me), flavors I eat on a regular basis and dishes I just won’t give up on no matter how many times I’ve tried. Shocking, I know. If we are growing and enjoy new experiences, our interests will tend to take us further than that we grew up with. We expand, we try new things, we have new experiences, and in some cases, we try to re-create those experiences.

I would not know how to boil water had my mother not shown me how first (love you Mom!). I would not have known how to create the best burger in the world without my wife (love you too!). Everything, I have learned to cook, whether through technique or ingredients, someone else showed me how. This is my culinary growth.

Our spiritual growth is no different. We must have someone to lead us, even if they are only one step further along than we are. We need mentors that have “been there and done that,” so that hopefully we don’t end up making a mess that we then have to eat. Without mentors we would surely stagnate and fall away from God.

I am blessed to belong to a church filled with such people; people willing to lead where they can, willing to share experience. I am also blessed to belong to a very diverse small group; a group that regularly helps push me closer to God. Without both of these blessings, I guarantee that my walk with God would not be what it is for me.

I still love Pad Thai, but before I try to make it again myself, I’ll find someone who’s done it before. I suggest the same for anyone trying to get to God without a church and a mentor. Don’t forget that you can be a mentor too; you may have more to contribute than you know. There’s only one recipe for God, and it’s very difficult to make on your own.

You’ll have to pardon me now, I have to go get my antacids.

Tags: Food, Relationship by jon
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ALIENS! ALIENS! We have aliens in our backyard! Call the police, the Army and the Marines! Heck, call the National Enquirer! I gotta charge up my ray gun, because the little green men have taken up residence in our backyard!

Now, I know you’re asking yourself, what is she talking about? How does she know she has been visited by aliens? I’ll tell you how – we have crop circles in our backyard. Yes, that’s right. Crop circles.

Recently, my wonderful husband came up to me and said, “Honey, have you noticed those odd patches of grass in the backyard?” I tried not to smile, keep a straight face. He continued, now with a grin on his face… “You know, the dead patches of grass that look like crop circles?” At this point, I racked my brain to try and think of a funny come back that would make him laugh. Because, let’s face it, I love making him laugh. But this time, the only thing that came to mind is… “Yep, they’re crop circles alright.”

Maybe I should start a little further back in my story.

Recently I decided to do some spring cleaning in the backyard. Yes, I know, it’s now fall, but look at it this way – I could just as easily be early with my spring clean, as late.

My husband and I have this corner in our backyard, where everything “unwanted” piles up. I like to call it “Junk Central.â€? I’m sure you have one of these corners too. Our little area contains piles of gardening pots, parts of rake handles and shovel heads laying broken and rusted like a Home Depot graveyard, cages for tomato plants that died years ago, mangled hanging baskets, and various lawn mower parts. Added to this mix, thanks to my parents, are half used bags of potting soil, weed killers of various sorts, fertilizer and cow manure.

To be honest, I am probably blaming my parents unfairly. However, all these various bags of goodies were donated when my parents downsized to a condo a while back. The age of the various bags are unknown, but, being a good daughter, and having every intention of using at least part of them, I gladly accepted.

I recently decided it was time to clean up at Junk Central. The horrible, putrid smell of chemicals wafting in the breeze, pretty much made that decision for me.

So, I pulled on my leather gloves and started for the corner of the yard. I grabbed a broken rake handle, mainly so that I would have something to poke around in the pile, so that whatever snakes may have taken up residency in Junk Central, would be mad at the stick, and not me. Slowly, I started picking my way through the junk. The mangled hanging baskets and flower pots were now a home to roaches and maggots, don’t ask me why. They were dragged to the side so that the water hose could blast them into oblivion. The tomato cages and landscape fabric had made quite a home for the neighborhood spiders. I was beginning to realize that I was going to have most of the population in the backyard mad at me in no time. But, I persevered.

The next thing was the donation pile. As I began to carefully lift up the bags of fertilizer and “bug-be-gone granules,� I realized that the bags were a lot heavier than they should be. Interesting, I thought. The next bag was actually sloshing. Uh oh, that’s not a good sign. I began to notice that the smell coming from the bags was getting stronger, and the neighbors were likely to turn me in to the police for burying a body in the backyard.

Then I noticed that some of the bags had actually started fusing together. I wondered at this point if I needed to call in some type of scientist in the event that I had created a new plastic. I began thinking about how many chemicals were co-mingling in this backyard nightmare, and was beginning to wish I had asked my husband to do this job instead of me.

I looked around to see where my husband was. He was still on the lawnmower, now in the front yard. He had already completed the backyard where I was working, which was now littered with pieces parts of gardening gear and lots of disgruntled, evicted families from Junk Central.

I finally managed to get the bags of “stuffâ€? separated as best I could, and started opening the bags. I’m not going to tell you what I saw in the bags, because my nightmares are still haunted by images of putrid goo and sludge. And let’s just say the reason why I keep describing the bag contents as “stuffâ€? is because they no longer looked anything like what they were originally, and the sun had faded the names off the bags so that I really didn’t know what they were anyway.

I wondered at this point what to do with them. If I heaped them into the garbage cans, first, I would end up covered in radioactive goo-stuff. Second, my husband and probably the garbage people, would want to kill me, not to mention the neighbors. That’s too long of a list. So, I decided I was going to spread the stuff on the lawn. After all, that’s where it was intended to go originally, right?

Wishing that my leather gloves were steel-reinforced, I picked up the bottoms of the bags and started dragging them around the backyard, emptying the contents as I went. Slowly, one by one, those heavy, smelly, repulsive bags were emptied out. My husband came by on the lawnmower just as I was finishing, with a questioning look on his face. I just smiled and waved.

It didn’t take long for the crop circles to appear after that. As you can imagine, from me dragging the bags around the backyard, I had left cute little circles all throughout the yard. I had to come clean with my husband and admit what I had done. It made him laugh. I love my husband.

Still wondering about the aliens? Well, there is no doubt in my mind that all that sludge and radioactive soup created some type of new life form. How else am I going to explain the crop circles to the neighbors?

Tags: Home life by sonya
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Good Morning Lord,

You are the greatest wonder of my life. You are marvelous beyond anything i know. I praise You for being You.

Thank you God for granting me another day on Your beautiful creation. Thank You for the blue sky, the singing birds, and the warmth of Your Son. Thank you for shelter, dear friends, and Your Word. Thank you for simple moments, romance, and meaning to this life. Thank you for the many blessings You heap upon me daily; please teach me that may i use them to glorify You.

This day, allow me to be part of Your plan, the plan that You have had in mind before i ever existed. The plan that will still be working when i leave this earth. That i may fulfill my part of Your plan is my greatest desire on this earth. I ask to be part of Your will, not my own.

I ask these things in Your beautiful Son Jesus’ name,

Amen

Tags: Relationship by jon
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(Written September 30, 2006)

“From the fullness of His grace, we have all received one blessing after another.� (John 1:16)

Tonight God blessed me and my family. First, let me say that God blesses me every single day, every single breath, every single moment. And for those blessings, I am forever grateful to our most gracious Father in heaven. Tonight’s blessing, was extra special.

Our family went to see the movie “Facing the Giants.â€? My review of this incredible movie is for another day. The movie was fantastic, especially given the choices from today’s X-rated, violence driven movies. However, a movie review is not what this story is about. This is a story of God’s awesome power and glory.

Just so you know, Facing the Giants was about glorifying God. It was about praising Him not just in the good times, but in the bad times as well. It creatively showed that if you give everything to God, He will rain down blessings upon you like summertime showers. Most importantly, “With God, all things are possible.â€? (Matt 19:26). The movie depicted a story that made you weep with sorrow, and shout with joy. God’s grace was so intensely felt that your heart hurt, your lip quivered and your soul ached. When you weren’t wiping your tears, you were sitting on the edge of your seat with anticipation. God’s power and glory was evident. It inspired.

Tonight, God chose this movie to inspire our son. I watched him, watching the movie. His eyes were glued to every roll of the tape, and click of the projector. He was transfixed. I watched his eyes widen in amazement and weep with pure joy. He cheered for God’s soldiers and prayed for their success. And successful they were, because they inspired my 11 year old son to have faith in God at all times. To trust in Him and know that God will always be with him.

I believe that God helped create this movie. I hope that it inspires people of all walks of life, and all ages, to believe in Him, trust in Him, give Him all the glory, and He will bless you.

Tonight, my son was blessed. Long after we were home from the movie, he was still talking about how inspiring it was. This movie touched his heart. I pray he will keep that soul-drenching, heart pounding feeling with him the rest of his life. He was transformed. All the little things here and there he’s heard from his parents, from his church, from wherever, finally fell into place tonight. Blessings poured out like rays of sunshine. God spoke to his heart.

At bedtime, our son came to us and asked if we could have a family prayer. Can you believe it? An eleven year old boy that comes to you, and asked his family to come together to praise God. Even now, my eyes well with tears and my heart overflows with love.

Our little family of four sat down in a circle on the floor, held hands and prayed. My husband asked if he would like to lead the prayer, and he said yes, and suggested that it go around the circle. Our son bowed his head and started praising God for all the blessings he could think of, for all the good times and bad, for everything. His mouth couldn’t keep up with his little heart that was bursting to get it all out. With a gentle squeeze of my hand, my turn came next, and God again blessed me by removing the lump in my throat so that I too could praise Him. I thanked God for everything too, especially for the two beautiful children sitting next to us. I prayed that we would remember to keep Him in our hearts, our lives, and our every waking moments. My husband’s turn was next, and his eloquent praise came forth for the blessings of God as well. With the final squeeze of a tiny six year old’s hand, our daughter spoke up and prayed too. Even though the movie was far over her head tonight, she too was lead in her heart to praise God. Her soft little words melted my heart once more, and I silently praised God again.

Yes, we are so blessed.

Tags: Relationship by sonya
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