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Jan

20

A new day, a new year, a new President

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While listening to the president-elect make a speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial this evening on the eve of his inauguration, it was hard not to feel emotional. The music and fireworks that followed were enough to engender a renewed hope that America will continue to stand as a nation.

Most recently, the USA has stood at the crossroads of remaining the land of the free. Our federated republic is both strong and fragile. Our constitution keeps us in the former position while progressive leadership can break the bonds that hold the nation together. We must stay vigilant to the pressure of swaying too far from what  brought us together in the first place.

The country has faced many trials over the course of history and, hopefully, something has been learned through each of them. What is necessary is to not repeat the same. While the country has been through tough times and countless missteps, it appears that God still blesses the United States of America.

Whether you are a democrat or a republican doesn’t matter but what makes America great is that we remain allied with each other, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.

Our purpose is to love one another with the same love with which Christ loves us. That is what true freedom is all about.

Jan

14

Colors of her Generosity

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Her hair bronzed like Cola
in a vat of firelight—
her smile as Pink as the sky.
These shades, so special, they could never be found
in my crayon box no matter
how many pictures I drew of her, my Mother.

Her wisdom spread
like a table cloth covered in salt and light,
draped on the edges of her heart
etched in many days of bread and labor,
teaching us to walk with God—her life,
the picture drew.

When I grew up, she put reluctance away
and spread wide her arms, let me go
to draw the pictures I’d seen on billboards,
to touch the world I’d painted Gold…
places I couldn’t scrawl with my crayons—
dreams drawn in Pearl and Onyx.

I drew away to where city lights
danced in every glass, where neon greetings
glittered in tinsel-charms of Silver.
But like the shadows of lost gems,
those pictures dimmed in time…
the wax lent to Bittersweet. Her picture not among them.

When her portrait emerged again, this time from the clouds—
brighter, clearer, and more alive than Blue-green or Green-blue
had ever colored my childhood oceans.
I remembered her words. her voice, they set my heart to Crimson.
The sky broke in hues borrowed from God’s palette,
colors that even Heaven couldn’t contain.

The rainbow drew her name.

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My mother and grandmother, Lucy and Lena, will forever be in my heart. This poem was recently published in In Celebration of Mothers, 2016.

Jan

09

A bittersweet homegoing

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On the first day of this new year, our beloved pastor went home to be with the Lord. Under a crystalline blue sky, we left church with heavy hearts and the knowledge that today would probably be his last day on earth. A bittersweet day.

While we consider the loss of this godly man, who’s come to be like a father to many of us, it’s grievous to think of our church without him. The scent of his cologne, his warm greetings, his sermons, his smile.

The only problem with focusing on our loss is the ignoring of our pastor’s gain. Right now, he is alive and well. He has no cares or concerns or health issues or pain. That is just what we can fathom. Within our finite minds, we’re really not capable of understanding an infinite God’s perfection in a place so far removed from our earthly home.

To ponder our dear pastor’s home going, it’s my prayer that our bittersweet feelings dissolve into just sweetness and that our hope is fixed on that blessed day when we will be reunited with him and all of  our loved ones who’ve gone home before us.

In the meantime, I say, Maranatha, Jesus!

“Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.”- Psalm 116:15

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Jan

02

New Year

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images5New Year’s Eve used to bring such excitement to me as a kid. I’d be allowed to stay up until midnight at which time the celebration came to a climax and then, minutes later, everything settled into just another day.

All of that fervor, excitement and hopefulness the New Year celebration brought! The anticipation had been building all day and into the night, but when the pot banging and fireworks ended, I felt let down. Is that all there is?

Every year, the same thing. It soon got old for me. Eventually, I became so disillusioned at the holiday season.

From that day on, I’ve maintained a sober spirit about New Year’s eve. And the subsequent new year as well. Sadly, I sound like a wet blanket, I know but for me, it keeps me sane. In reality, the day after December 31st is just another day.

On the bright side of New Years’ eve, I look at the day after as one day closer to the Lord coming back. For that alone, I rejoice that the new year is here!

Happy New Year everyone!

Dec

27

Merry Christmas… really?

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outoffocus_christmas_lights_1959351While walking through our neighborhood, it’s lovely to see the creative scenery on display for Christmas:  twinkling lights, candles in windows, red, green, and multi-colored adornments everywhere. Each lawn dressed to the nines.

There was a time when we first bought our house that I didn’t really care to dress it up with lights. The festoonery, to me, was just that. A carnival display. Not for my Lord. He is worth so much more.

For several years, probably a decade, to view our house from the street, one might conclude the people inside did not celebrate Christmas. Then several years ago, a thought hit me. Our house looked dead.

Shouldn’t we have something to show for our love for the Lord? Even though he wasn’t really born in the winter, the historians tell us, still we felt the need to celebrate His birth.

I’d never been a fan of purchasing a dead tree–cut down, dragged into the house, pine needles everywhere, a potential fire hazard, animals could pull it down, although we don’t have animals, but you never know when a neighbor’s dog might amble through the front door. (It’s happened.) Then after Christmas, it’s dragged back out of the house and discarded at the street. Just what is the point?

So since we have a tree out front that’s there all year round–alive and well–I decorated that one. A dozen Christmas balls and a string of lights later, there is the Cantell family Christmas tree.

As our family celebrates the birth of the Lord every day, this was the perfect solution to our formerly Jewish home.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

 

 

Dec

17

Let it snow…

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Another winter upon us.

Some dread the cold season while others make their living from the snowfall.

The winter season brings with it so many memories:  the Volkswagen I saw from my childhood bedroom window that had been completely immersed in six feet or more of snow… sledding down inclines that today I’d have to think twice about… driving home on a snow emergency route just before the governor  declared the road shut down. (I was the only one on the roadway and had my pick of lanes, so I drove straight down the middle.)

I’ve danced in the snow… shoveled the snow… and watched it fall from the warm confines of a fireplace while sipping hot chocolate. I don’t recall ever creating a snowman in the snow, although I must have, right? While in school, my boyfriend-turned-husband made a snow alligator. He is not a conformist by any stretch.

While I’m not so sentimental that I look forward to a white Christmas–that’s for the Hallmark Family. Nor am I particularly looking forward to celebrating Christmas just on December 25th. For me, that would be anti-climatic, since I celebrate the birth of  Messiah Jesus every day of the year.

I rejoice with you all that the reason for the season is all about Him. May your hearts embrace Him this season and throughout the year.

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Dec

12

Stay focused

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How comforting to know that the Lord is on the throne.

When I’d first heard that statement, I had to process it. It had come from someone at my church who’d been looking for a job and things didn’t look bright–at least, not from the world’s perspective. I’d felt so sorry for him, and while he kept studying for a test to allow him the opportunity to apply for a particular position, he kept flunking. Sometimes by just a few points. At one point at church, he said, “It’s okay… God’s still on the throne.”

He had such peace about it. While I was “fretting” for him, he seemed perfectly content.

God is still on the throne. He always is and was and will be… How comforting to know that His word is true, and while on the throne, we as believers are in His grace. All we need to remember is to keep our eyes on Jesus, and He will give us peace–not as the world does. It’s deeper and more abiding than anything the word can offer.

May God strengthen your walk with Him as you receive His peace on your journey today.

Dec

04

Gratitude

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Is there anything too small to say to God, “Thank you”? Do only special things require thanks… or the grand or unexpected?

These exceptional times are worthy of our gratitude, but God’s word says, “…in everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.”

Giving thanks honors God. When we realize that God is the source of our blessings, we make Him the recipient of our undying gratitude and entrust Him with our total dependence.

When we are not thankful, seeds of thanklessness are able to easily root… Ingratitude leads to murmuring, complaining, and pettiness. A sense of pride and focus on ourselves become the tares that may eventually choke out our joy and lend to bitterness.

A bitter person has no hope. Hopelessness leads to depression. At all costs, we should continually use our tongues and hearts to give praise to God. When we focus on this instead of ourselves, God is sure to inhabit the praise of His people and the benefit of this is priceless.

Nov

27

A day to give thanks…

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The celebration of Thanksgiving has always been associated with a peaceful feast between the first natives to our land–the Indians–and the Pilgrims. When the Pilgrims arrived in Massachusetts Bay, they found only one living Patuxet Indian, a man named Squanto who had survived slavery in England and knew their language. He taught them to grow corn, to fish, and negotiated a peace treaty between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Nation. At the end of their first year, the Pilgrims held a great feast honoring Squanto and the Wampanoags and thanked God for their good fortune and bounty.

While skirmishes and raids between the Indians and the “white” men had occurred over the years, historical revisionists would have us believe that these dreadful incidents should preclude our positive feelings and/or happiness about our national holiday.

My take? While history should not repeat itself, it usually does by those who do not understand that sin in this world is always the source of our struggles. Until man recognizes that he is not able to overcome sin in his own strength and, most importantly, that he is not master over himself but God is, there will be struggles, evil, and trials on the earth.

Thanksgiving has been observed in different ways throughout the centuries… During the Revolutionary War, the Continental Congress issued various proclamations for national days of prayer and giving thanks, usually in November and December.

In 1789, George Washington said he wanted the people to be thankful “for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted; for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed.”

The proclamation also makes it clear that the Thanksgiving Day, in Washington’s opinion, should be a day of prayer, especially for lawmakers and government officials.

It was President Abraham Lincoln in 1863 who issued the next major Thanksgiving Day proclamation, and every President since Lincoln has issued an annual proclamation.

“I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.”

Nov

18

Our new president

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Whether you voted for Donald Trump or not, he is our 45th president of the land of the free. Whether you like him or not, I believe this man has been chosen by God to rule. Like God has used men of ancient times to do God’s bidding; i.e., King Cyrus, Donald Trump will be used as well.

I’m saddened by the rioting in the streets that comes from those who are claiming to be afraid and fearful of their future in America. As though their rights are going to be taken away because the GOP is now in power? Who is ginning up this fear?

For so long, our country has been directed by socialist leaning leadership that would have America be a country that we need to somehow pardon… that we should be ashamed somehow of our nation and that someone needs to change it.1868211031 Through a scope of liberalism, our leadership was bound to take America down–slowly, through a thousand cuts–and guide its passage into a global, one-world, borderless free market entity… down an abyss and devoid of God. This was the plan. But it’s been thwarted–for now.

With Donald Trump in power, I believe God has given America a chance to redeem our country from the brink of the unimaginable. May God continue to use our country’s leadership to bring about His plans and protocols for America and that we would remain free to share the Gospel.