What More Can I Do?

One of the last projects I worked on while I was at NASA was also one of the hardest and most frustrating.

The equipment was built by the scientist and, when we received it, it had lots of problems. It didn't pass some of the tests NASA required and we had to redesign several parts. All the while, my supervisors kept hounding me:

• Did you get that re-design finished?
• Did you fix the problem with the measurement system?
• Are you going to have it ready in time to launch?

My team worked like crazy, working evenings and even some weekends. We did everything we could to ensure that it would ship to Kennedy Space Center on time.

Finally, one Friday morning, at the end of a long week, I lost my cool. I said, "We're working overtime! We're getting all the help we can. What more can we do?"

I wonder, does God ever ask that?

What More Can I Do?

I admit my prayers are often focus on questions and requests.

• Do You hear me? I've begged you to heal my friend for so long.
• I need You to fix my car. I can't afford a car bill.  
• When will my sister get a new job? She's going to kill herself working so hard.

Of course, in the NASA world, functioning equipment launched on time is the measure of success.

What is the measure of success in our walk with God?

Too often, we're tempted to measure by His answers to our prayers. 
We might define His love for us by the requests He grants.

If You loved me, You would...
How can You let this happen and yet say You love me?

And God asks, "What more can I do?"

• I sent My Son from His place of power to be born a defenseless baby.
• He traded His throne of glory for a cave of farm animals.
• I watched Him be ridiculed and called a heretic.
• I stood by while He was beaten, tortured, and murdered.

All this I did to show my infinite love for you.

I resurrected Him to life and promised you eternal life with Me.
I gave you the Holy Spirit to live within you, to be your Guide and Peace.

All this I did because I hunger to have you with Me forever.

My love is not defined by what I will do or can do.

It is sealed and delivered by what I have already done. 

Our Father longs to hear our prayers. Jesus Himself is our Advocate to bring our pleas and praise before the Lord. We are commanded to pray continuously, to bring our petitions to Him.

The depth of our relationship with Him is defined by His unchangeable character, His perfect mercy, and His indescribable grace.

We need never doubt God's love because He doesn't step into our circumstances in the way we want or when we want.

His love is proven by the cross and the empty tomb. 

P.S. Our hard work paid off and the equipment made it to Kennedy in plenty of time to launch on the Shuttle, and find it's way to the International Space Station. The experiment ran beautifully!

Shadows of Love

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. Psalm 139:13. 

I came across this wrought-iron patio set in a little nook at Ridgecrest Conference Center in North Carolina. I’ve gone there every May for ten years and I'd never seen this pretty little cubby hole.

Your eyes might be drawn to the patio set or to the quiet surroundings but my eyes immediately settled on the intricate design of the shadows beneath the chairs.

They reminded me of watching Grandma’s gnarled hands carefully crochet a doily with fine crochet thread. There was tenderness and great care in each stitch. She always had a person in mind to give her doily to and great love went into each creation.

My mind drifted to the tender words in Psalm 139:13

You knit me together in my mother's womb. 

In your mind’s eye, watch the Creator of the Universe lovingly form each stitch to design the person He desired to know: you! 

• The One who spoke the stars into place and named each one.
• The One who paints sunrises and sunsets.
• The One who created the earth’s waters and filled them with life.
• The One who formed giraffes, hippopotamuses, and tiny, perfect hummingbirds.

This One of power, majesty, and glory designed an intricate pattern and tenderly, carefully created you.

Just as Grandma filled each work of her hands with love for the person who would receive it, so God filled each stitch with His great love as He created you, His precious, unique child.

For great is his love toward us, and the faithfulness of the LORD endures forever. Praise the LORD. Psalm 117:2.

Do you realize how precious and treasured you are?

Look at yourself through God's eyes. What about you is lovely to the Lord? 

The Heart of Thankfulness

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"Give thanks to the LORD Almighty,

for the LORD is good;

his love endures forever." Jeremiah 33:11

What are you thankful for?
All the normal things come to mind: family friends, home, job…

But Jeremiah’s words draw us back to the heart of thankfulness.

Give thanks for the Lord’s goodness. 

His goodness doesn’t lie in the blessings He showers on us.

His goodness lies totally in His Son.
His grace was and is lived out through Jesus as He walked among men.
His goodness is expressed in the tenderness of His presence.

He is a good Father.

Give thanks for His enduring love. 

His love endured the pain of the cross. 
His enduring love causes Him to smile and reach down to pick us up, even when we stumble over and over again.
Most of all, His enduring love stretches into eternity, His heart’s desire is to be with us forever.

He is a loving Father.


Set aside the other blessings aside for a moment and thank Him for who He is.
Thank Him that you are His.

15 Amazing Verbs

I wasn't going to blog today. I finished the 8 Colors of God's Grace and hadn't decided what to do next. Then I read Isaiah 53:3-7

He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way;

and the LORD has laid on

him the iniquity of us all. 

I read the verbs in these verses and they affected me like never before.

Despised                         Rejected                       Man of Sorrows

Suffered                          Ignored                         Dishonored

Took my infirmities      Carried my sins           
Stricken

Smitten                           Afflicted                       Pierced

Crushed                          Punished                      Wounded

These are just any old verbs. They describe the horror that Jesus endured for me - for you!

And the most astonishing thing of all is the last part of verse 7. Look at it again and let the words soak in:

And the LORD has laid on

him the iniquity of us all.   

The LORD - the great I AM - allowed this suffering.! In fact, He planned it. It was His sovereign will. Why??

His love for us was greater than saving the life of His Son. 

Does that fact astound you?
How does it give you total assurance of His love?