Tattered

I slept in; giving me a much later start than normal.  Pulling in to town, I drive the main street to where I will start my run.

A group of 30 men are walking in formation; some in fatigues, some in camo, some in shorts and tee shirts.  All are carrying a flag. They are laughing among themselves.  I honk and wave as I drive by. They wave and yell.

I park my car and begin my run.

In a few hours a Freedom Parade would be rolling through town. A parade of nothing more than people driving their cars boasting their pride of our nation.

As my miles clicked by, more cars and trucks drive by with American flags flying in the wind.

Hot rods and daily drivers.
Farm trucks and show trucks.
Motorcycles and scooters.
Old, young, black and white.
Republican and Democrat.

Today isn't about policy or change or politics.
Today is about celebrating the freedoms we have no matter what our opinions.

I pause to take this picture.
A tattered Old Glory flying high above the cars gathering below.

Running back to my car, I think about that flag.
Her frayed edges show her wear as if she feels the turbulence of the current times.
One can see Lady Liberty take a haggard breath.
Yet the flag still flies.

Today, maybe now more than ever, we celebrate the flag and for all it stands.
Freedom.  Strength.  Courage.
The edges may be frayed, but we the people, will take our bruised and battled hands and raise you.

We the people, will always fly you.

 

Green Pastures & Still Waters

When my kids were little - and not so little - I would make them sit down and do their homework.  However, most times it became apparent I could not "make" them do anything.  

I could regulate them to the table, but I could not make them work.
I could punish them, but I could not make them complete their assignments.

And so the battle began.
One fighting in authority, the other fighting in independence.
Two Alphas with locked horns over a battle of wills and neither conceding despite the exhaustion.

Locked horns look different for everyone.  Maybe your horns are locked with a child, a parent, a spouse or a boss.  Maybe the Alpha you fight is an industry or a company or a system of injustice.  Maybe your fight is within, battling anxiety or depression or worry.

Your horns are locked and you are fighting with every ounce of your being.
We are all struggling right now.  Each and every one of us.  

Which brings me here; staring at the pasture in front of me. The words from Psalm 23 come to mind.

He makes me lie down in green pastures,
He leads me beside still waters,
He restores my soul.

"God, help me.  I'm tired of this fight."

"Lie down in the green pasture."

"God, I'm a little too busy in this fight to lie down.  Help me in the fight."

"I am.  Lie down."

"Can't you see I'm right?  Can't you see the fight I'm in?  I am tired God and can't do this on my own.  You need to help me."

"Beloved, this isn't your fight.  The struggle is yours, but the fight is Mine.  Lie down in the green pasture.  It isn't a request."

He MAKES me lie down in green pastures.
God knows my burden.  He knows my weary.  
And the answer is to lie down in the green pasture.  In the abundance of the field I am fed, I am nourished, I am given rest.

You see friends, it is after time in the pasture that one is strengthened enough to be led. It is then  when He leads us to the still waters; those life-giving, soul-quenching still waters.  We must recharge and strengthen ourselves before we can begin the journey to the water.

For it is at the still waters where He restores our soul.
He doesn't fix it.  He doesn't mend it. 
He restores it.

But first, He makes us lie down in green pastures.

Lie down friends.
Find His abundance in the pasture in front of you.

A Little Girl & A Valiant Warrior

When the Syrian army crossed into Israeli land, they took her.  We know nothing more than what we are told - she was a little girl and she now waited on the warrior's wife.

He, the warrior, we know a bit more.  He is a supreme commander in the Syrian Army giving him not only a big job, but much prominence and wealth.  Not many are described as "valiant warrior" and yet, he is.  He is loved, respected and adored.

How do we know this?   Because the nameless little girl taken as a slave cares so deeply for him she wishes him healed.  You see, the valiant warrior suffers from leprosy.  An incurable disease which will take everything from him; his status, his wealth, his prominence.  He stood to lose it all.

Perhaps his bravery and valiance rubs off on her for she finds the courage to speak to his wife.  "I wish that my master were with the prophet who is in Samaria!  Then he would cure him of his leprosy."  This nameless little girl isn't dismissed as speaking nonsense.  The big important and prominent people in society listened to her.  The Syrian king granted the warrior's wish to find the prophet and writes a letter to the King of Israel.

A little girl spoke and warriors and kings listened.  This little girl had the courage to speak.

Receiving the King of Syria's letter stating his highest ranking officer was coming to be healed, the King of Israel became distraught and tore his clothes.  He held no power to heal him.  

The king was distraught.
The prophet was not.

Elisha told the king,"Why have you torn your clothes? Now let him come to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel."  Elisha had the courage to speak up to the king.

Naaman, the valiant warrior, arrives with his horses, his men and his chariots to Elisha's house.   It is evident a man of importance stands in the doorway.  

Elisha does not meet him.  Instead Elisha sends his messenger to the valiant warrior and says, "Go and wash in the Jordan 7 times, and your flesh will be restored to you and you will be clean."

Go and wash?  Go and wash??  This is what he says to do?  The valiant warrior is angry at such simplicity.   
He has successfully waged war on enemies.  
He successfully created war campaigns that captured kingdoms.  
The entire Syrian army was at his command.  

Simple was not in his vocabulary.  Simple would not do.

His men question him.  If he were asked to do something great would he not do it?  How much more then if all he is asked is to go and wash?

The men had courage to speak up to their commander.

Naaman washes.
His skin becomes clean.
He is healed.

The valiant warrior's healing came when others had the courage to speak up to those in authority over them.  Dare we say, the healing came because of the courage of a nameless little slave girl?  Had she not spoken of Elisha, the valiant warrior would not be washing in the river.

In a time when the world we know has been turned upside down, may we all find the courage of this nameless little girl.  The courage to speak of hope and healing.

God used a nameless little girl to show a valiant warrior who He is. 
He can use you too.


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2 Kings 5:1-16
Now Naaman, captain of the army of the king of Aram, was a great man with his master, and highly respected, because by him the Lord had given victory to Aram. The man was also a valiant warrior, but he was a leper. ² Now the Arameans had gone out in bands and had taken captive a little girl from the land of Israel; and she waited on Naaman’s wife. ³ She said to her mistress, “I wish that my master were with the prophet who is in Samaria! Then he would cure him of his leprosy.” ⁴Naaman went in and told his master, saying, “Thus and thus spoke the girl who is from the land of Israel.” ⁵ Then the king of Aram said, “Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel.” He departed and took with him ten talents of silver and six thousand shekels of gold and ten changes of clothes.
⁶ He brought the letter to the king of Israel, saying, “And now as this letter comes to you, behold, I have sent Naaman my servant to you, that you may cure him of his leprosy.” ⁷ When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, “Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man is sending word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? But consider now, and see how he is seeking a quarrel against me.”
⁸ It happened when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, that he sent word to the king, saying, “Why have you torn your clothes? Now let him come to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel.” ⁹ So Naaman came with his horses and his chariots and stood at the doorway of the house of Elisha. ¹⁰ Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh will be restored to you and you will be clean.” ¹¹ But Naaman was furious and went away and said, “Behold, I hhought, ‘He will surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper.’ ¹² Are not Abanah and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?” So he turned and went away in a rage. ¹³ Then his servants came near and spoke to him and said, “My father, had the prophet told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more then, when he says to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?” ¹⁴ So he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child and he was clean.
¹⁵ When he returned to the man of God with all his company, and came and stood before him, he said, “Behold now, I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel; so please take a present from your servant now.” ¹⁶ But he said, “As the Lord lives, before whom I stand, I will take nothing.”