Karen Rabbitt

Winter Sustenance

Like ‘50s farm women who canned corn in August for January sustenance, we can store up God’s word in the cellars of our hearts. Such stored wisdom can carry us through our spiritual winters. When tragedy and disappointment threaten to overwhelm our trust in God’s goodness, those summer-stored words can nourish us.

“Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him.” Job’s words strengthen my faith as I contemplate tragedies around me— the California wildfires, the untimely death of a friend’s child, the catastrophic losses in China and Myanmar. If Job can hope in God in spite of his immense losses, we can too.

Job’s testimony of hope was called up from a summer’s reserve. He didn’t grow that trust as his children died, his servants perished, and his crops failed. That faith had grown out of his intimate friendship with God before those reversals.

Sometimes we find God in suffering but the road is smoother if we’ve gathered up sustenance ahead of time. We don’t have to leave the path to find food if we carry it with us. What scriptures carry you through? What wisdom is tucked away in the cool basement of your heart?

Here are two more from my storeroom:
 “The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom.” 2 Ti 4:18
“I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.” Ro 8:18

Jesus, please help us store in summer what we'll need in winter.

A Sure Foundation

"That steel I-beam sure looks strong." My husband and I had just awakened this morning in the unfinished basement of my daughter's two-story house.

"It looks strong, but in a fire, wood would only char. That steel is like hard wax--it would melt. A beam of several pine 2x12s nailed and glued together would maintain its structural integrity, even in the flames."

"So even though the steel looks more stable, wood is better in a fire.

"Yup."

There's an image. What's our foundation made of? Do we look strong or are we really strong? Are we strong in ourselves or strong in the Lord? And how can we know, except in the fire?

Paul says, in 1Corinthians 3, there is one foundation--Jesus Christ. Maybe in our everyday lives, we're not so aware of our foundations. We manage a busy household, we perform well in a challenging job, and/or we get A's in graduate school.

But what happens when a child gets leukemia, a new boss fires us, or we sustain a closed-head injury?  Or even the lesser fires of the flu, a critical boss, or a bout of the blues?

What do we rest on then? What supports our weight in those flames? It's not our good looks. It is the surety of that Jesus-beam that undergirds us. He is the foundation that survives every fire. 

Lord, Isaiah 33:6 says you are "a sure foundation for our times." May we rest our weight on you.

The Mountains also Testify

"For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse." Romans 1:20

At my daughter's, almost every morning for the last three weeks, I've walked across the lawn and boulders of her back yard, opened the gate, and walked a path around a three hundred acre lake just to the east. Thirty miles west, Long's Peak, more than 14,000 feet, glows in the early light. Two evenly-matched smaller peaks--Twin Sisters--shore up the north side of the "fourteener." They are part of the front range that stretches for a hundred and seventy-five miles, as if anchoring not only Colorado, but all of America.

But I'm a water person, myself. The smell of the sea, the ceaseless roll of the waves, the endless view across the ocean speaks God's poetry. And yet, the mountains also testify.

"I am a rock," Long's Peak says, "like your God is a rock." Rocks endure. These high hills will give witness to the steadiness of the Godhead until the end.  Twenty years ago, I ascended another fourteener, Pike's Peak. The three jet fighters that roared round the rock below us accentuated the height, approaching three miles. The enormous stone formations at the foot--the Garden of the Gods--looked like some giant had arranged boulders in his backyard, like a gargantuan version of my daughter's landscaping. 

But we don't need to walk the beach or contemplate the heights to perceive God's character. We can open our own front door. The iridescence of a blackbird's neck, the yellow center of a daisy, the blue of a cloudless sky--they all reveal God's power and love. Indeed, we need look no further than the design of our own hand to sense his care. God has given great thought to the making of the earth and its inhabitants so that we can begin to discern his nature by his creation.

Creator-Father, open our eyes to see your character in your handiwork. 

Life Begins as Life Continues

On Tuesday, our thirty-sixth wedding anniversary, our first grandchild was born in Colorado. In God's sweet timing, I arrived on the right day. (Photos will be up soon on www.rabbittsoupcom ) He was expected next week, but when I left Salina, Kansas at 6 a.m. on the second day of my two-day drive, my phone tingled with a text message:  "Guess where I am." Her water had broken at midnight and she was in the hospital. Praying across the prairie, I pondered the labor process.

Step by step, a child is born. Every birth proceeds from beginning to middle to delivery. The water breaks, the contractions start, the pushing begins. It's a messy process and not always orderly. Life begins as life continues. Messy and disorderly sometimes, but moving towards a goal.

Line upon line, precept upon precept, God is bringing to birth his goal of a family.  Beginning with "Let there be light," continuing with the light of the world sent into the darkness of our first parent's sin, and finishing with a golden kingdom beyond our imagination, God is giving life to his vision. Just like my daughter and son-in-law, we will all consider the end worth the labor.

Father, thank you for your vision. May we see more clearly what you see and, like you, may we count the birth-pangs worth the kingdom. 

Can You Hear Me?

My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. John 10:27(NIV)

Do we know his voice? Some of us struggle to believe his voice is the one we are hearing. Often we believe what we’ve heard is just our own thoughts. How can we distinguish his words from media voices, parental words, Satan’s input, and our own ruminations? A friend recommended a helpful book, Can You Hear Me? by Brad Jersak.

Jersak, a Canadian pastor, writes clearly on hearing Jesus’ voice. He talks about the simplicity of listening, blocks to hearing, and the life of listening prayer. His simple instructions offer practical guidelines. For example, he describes listening through biblical stories by starting with picturing the details of a Bible story, after asking God to bring to mind one that is meaningful to you. After you imagine the characters and their behavior, he suggests, just in your imagination, to use your senses of touch, taste, sight, hearing, and smell to immerse yourself in the narrative. Then, see where Jesus is and what he’s doing. Finally, as you draw near to him, ask him what truth he wants to speak to you.

Following these instructions with the Mary and Martha story, I got a clear sense of a personal word. I was surprised, actually. I’ve often questioned whether I’m listening to his voice, but the sentence that came to me spoke directly to a current need.

As Jersak points out, this particular prayer strategy isn’t new, but he communicates it in a way I can grasp. In addition to this engagement with scripture stories, Jersak teaches other ways of hearing God. He also talks about intercession, justice, and inner healing, among other topics. If you, too, are hungry to hear the shepard’s voice, this book will feed you.

Father, Jesus, Holy Spirit, we want to hear and obey your voice.

Wanting What We Don’t Want

In a March, 2001 quote, Christian philosopher Dallas Willard says, “One of the hardest points to get past in spiritual formation is that in order for me to be spiritually transformed, I have to want to not want what I now want.”

I thought of this yesterday when I realized that a part of me thinks it’s okay not to lose the three pounds I gained on our March vacation. I thought I was all in agreement about losing. If I don’t eliminate them now, I’ll gain three more when I go help my daughter with the birth of our first grandchild in June. Not until yesterday morning, when I stopped and thought more seriously why my efforts over the last few weeks haven’t been working, did I notice her hidden in the corner.

Lifting her nose, she said:  “My clothes still fit, my lipid panel numbers are okay, what’s the problem here?”

I pulled her out into the light: “Oh, no you don’t. If I don’t lose these pounds now, I’ll gain more in June. I won’t be so mindful of my eating then. I am not going there.” 

Sometimes, even as Christians, we fully want to disobey in a particular area. But aren’t we usually of two minds? Part of us wants to do the right thing; part of us wants what it wants and doesn’t want to change. Part of us wants to read the Bible, the other part says, “Oh, what’s the use?” Part of us wants to tithe, the other says, “I need that money myself.” One part says, “Don’t even look,” while another part says, “Just one glance at that X-rated site won’t hurt.”

With renewed prayer, I managed to reduce my portions yesterday. By grace, I’ll do it again today. Jesus is Prince of Peace. He is the one who exposes and settles our conflicts. Only he gives power to change our wants.

Lord, we come to you, just as we are, conflicts and all. Please grow our internal peace and unity.