I have the sincere blessing of meeting with some wonderful ladies every Thursday night for a book study. No where else I would want to be on a cold, snowy Thursday night! This will be our second study since the inception of Women of Thanks and we are studying an amazing book entitled A Perfect Mess by Lisa Harper. Lisa describes her book this way...
"On those days when french fries litter the floor of your minivan, when you think bad words about other drivers, when your smile hides an anxious heart - in those moments when you fall short of all you'd hoped to be - what does God see when he looks at you? In your less-than-lovely moments, God sees a precious daughter in need of His perfect love."
Lisa is a master story-teller who weaves her real-life stories with humor and honesty. It's a breath of fresh air to read from a writer who is authentic about her faith and how God used her in all of her messes and mistakes, to make significant Kingdom impact on this generation of women!
You can watch more on Lisa here as she describes how she came to writing this book... A Perfect Mess...
What I appreciate about this book is that it takes you through the Psalms in a very practical way. We're not reading about people who had their lives all together. We're not reading about people who were perfect... in actuality, we're reading about people who in Lisa's words are "bemoaning something". People who came humbled before God who were imperfect. Who messed up. Who were broken and weary and tired and weak. And who can't relate to people like that?
As children we loved to play dress-up... but as adults, don't we do the same thing? Don't we try to mask our true feelings in an effort to "compete" for perfection? I know I am guilty of this time and again as I look back over the course of my life. And I'm sure you've found yourself there too... in a similar situation... You're on your way to church... you get into an argument with your husband about the lack of attention he's given you lately, you're yelling at your kids because they made you late AGAIN and you have NO desire to go to that family picnic later in the day that you still have to make eight pounds of potato salad for and you haven't even been to store to get the potatoes yet! Oh - but as you walk inside the church doors, anxiety still at an all-time high, you burst through all smiles. And when someone greets you with "Good Morning, how are you today?" you confidently lie and tell them, "GREAT! How are you?"
Really? Great? And just moments before you were ready to start a war with the very people you love more than anything on planet earth including the family dog?
But isn't this what we do?
Because heaven help us if we don't "appear" to have it all together!
Lisa speaks very clear to this in the opening pages of chapter 1, Walk This Way. She talks about an experience she had purchasing a pair of black, knee-high, leather boots in Chicago with her girlfriends on the night before a big event in which she was a speaker. As much as she loved them - they were extremely uncomfortable. In fact her girlfriends could tell that she was having a difficult time walking in them - but she was not about to let them think they were anything less than perfect! She ends up buying the clearenced boots and wearing them the following evening to her speaking engagement. I laughed out loud when I read her words on page 8, "I no longer had any sensation in my toes. I limped mincingly to the podium and tried to focus on speaking while fearing my feet were in the initial stages of gangrene."
And so the question... when was the last time you hobbled around in pain due to your own foolish choices?
I can think of countless times when I metaphorically "hobbled around" due to some poor choices... Poor eating habits, poor exercising habits, poor choice in boyfriends growing up. You name it! Lisa says it best on page 8 when she says, "we must follow our heavenly Father's path instead of being lured off course by what ungodly people proclaim to be fashionable. And this ode to obedience includes a warning as well: attempting to be hip in ways that aren't cool with God will ultimately lead to hobbling around in pain, separated from the only One who loves you unconditionally."
The Psalm focus for this week is Psalm 1:
"Happy are those who don't listen to the wicked, who don't go where sinners go, who don't do what evil people do."
The Hebrew word for "happy" in Psalm 1:1 can be translated as "blessed". Here we aren't talking about being happy people all the time. People with fake smiles to mask the pain. No. Instead we who know Christ as our personal Savior, understand that there is a BIG difference between being happy and being filled with JOY. This should bring us all a little relief. While we are here in this world there are going to be days when we just don't feel "happy". When the smile won't come... when the road is hard... when the pain runs deep. But we DO have reasons to be women filled with the joy of the Lord. Because when we follow His path for our lives... when we live in obedience to His commands... JOY will come. It will indeed flow from our relationship with the Father.
And the bottom line to Psalm 1 is this: happiness can't keep company with wickedness. We must keep ourselves away from those things that lure us away from the best that God has for us. God calls us blessed. We were made for so much more than this world has to offer!
Psalm 1 continues:
"They love the Lord's teachings, and they think about these teachings day and night. They are strong, like a tree planted by a river. The tree produces fruit in season, and its leaves don't die. Everything they do will succeed."
We are to be like trees planted by a river whose roots grow deep. Nourished. Strengthened. Spiritually healthy. That is God's desire for His children. For our roots to run deep in Him.
Lisa takes us through the New Testament scripture in Matthew regarding sheep and goats. When Jesus teaches on doing to the 'least of these' (including feeding and clothing and housing) He says "Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored that was me - you did it to me". Sheep will be the ones who do this as Jesus... while goats on the other hand will be the ones who didn't do as Jesus and by doing so ultimately ignore and reject Jesus.
I love her illustration of sheep here. And she describes this well on page 19, "they (sheep) have walked closely with Jesus and have begun to mirror some of His mannerisms. It's not that they're inherently better than the wicked guys; sheep and goats are both stinky; hairy manure machines." She goes on to say that "furthermore, my veterinarian friends tell me that goats are actually smarter than sheep. That means that sheep don't have more intrinsic value than goats. The real reason they're elevated in this gospel imagery is their relationship with the Shepherd."
So - wait a minute. Goats are the bad guys and they are actually "smarter" than sheep?? It's more proof that God uses the weak in the world to shame the strong (1 Corinthians 1:27). It's another demonstration of sheep being elevated in scripture due to their inherit ability to obey they master. We are ultimately and thankfully separated from the goats because of our RELATIONSHIP with Jesus.
And so the next question... am I a goat or a sheep?
I'm looking so forward to our time together during this study on A Perfect Mess. I believe God is going to do amazing things as we discover all the ways God loves us!!
Enjoy reading friends!
Finding JOY in the JOurneY,
www.wendybender.blogspot.com
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