It’s Not About the Bikes

Megan Breedlove September 15, 2014 0 Comments

This past July, my husband’s bike and Ellie’s bike were stolen off our front porch. In broad daylight. While there was a car in the driveway, and the babysitter was inside with the kids.

I found out by text while I was at the Philadelphia Christian Writer’s Conference, for which I was serving on faculty. The thefts hadn’t even been discovered until my husband got home from work and realized the bikes were no longer on the porch. He called the police, made a report, and then texted me.

I was angry. It was bad enough that they (whoever “they” were) had stolen my husband’s bike, but to steal from my child? Now I was really angry.

Fortunately for me, I was sitting at a table eating dinner with several other faculty when the text came in. These faculty were not only experts in their particular niches, but also men and women of prayer. One precious friend prayed out loud, as all of us bowed our heads, for the bikes to be returned and for God to receive the glory.

To make a long story short, God granted our request. A police officer friend on patrol found the bikes within a couple of days. Along with ours, he found two others that had been stolen from other families, and he had a wrecker come take all four bikes to the police pound. After the investigation was completed, the detective told us she had taken the “hold” off our bikes, and we could go get them. The only problem was that when we called the pound to find out the procedure for recovering our bikes, we were told that we would have to pay $33.75 for each bike (they were dividing the cost of the wrecker among the four bikes that were recovered).

I don’t understand this policy. It seems to me that the family of the teenager who stole the bikes should have to pay the fee. It doesn’t seem fair to me that I should have to pay to get my stolen property back.

And that’s the point. It’s not fair. But it’s also not all about the bikes.

I realized this one day when I had been complaining on Facebook about having to pay the fee. As I was sitting here at the computer, a private message from a sweet friend popped up. “You know, Meg,” the message went (I’m paraphrasing), “I really hesitate to try to teach anyone a spiritual lesson. I don’t want to come across as being superior. But there’s a lesson to be learned here.” She then proceeded to gently explain what God had shown her through my situation.

That’s what I want to share with you: that the lesson to be learned here is not about the bikes. The lesson is about God, His infinite holiness, and His infinite love.

Humanity is God’s creation. You and I belong to Him. Yet Satan slipped into that first Garden and “stole” us, in a manner of speaking, into His kingdom. We were still God’s creations, but now we inhabited the kingdom of darkness. And to get us back into His kingdom, God had to pay a price.

That’s why God sent Jesus to this earth, to buy us back. You read that right—God was willing to pay the price to buy back what was already His.

I, frankly, am not willing to pay the price to get my bikes back. I’m still trying to work out a way that I won’t have to do that. But God was willing to pay to get His property back. He was willing to make a payment He never should have had to make. And He didn’t just shell out $33.75 x 2, either.

He gave His own life.

And instead of trying to get out of the situation, as I am doing, He came right down into it.

My bikes didn’t willingly go off on their own. But you and I willingly departed from God, sinning against Him of our own volition. Yet He bought us back anyway. Even though we didn’t deserve it.

I don’t know whether or not I’ll ultimately have to pay to get my bikes back. I hope not, but I don’t know for sure. What I do know is that I will never forget the lesson my friend pointed out to me: God was willing to buy me back, even when I didn’t deserve it, and even at the cost of His own life.

This really isn’t all about the bikes. It’s about far more.

Colossians 1:13—He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son.

1 Peter 2:9—But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

You Are Not an Armadillo

Megan Breedlove September 8, 2014 0 Comments

Only in Texas (or maybe a few other places) would I have had a recent conversation with Lindsey that went something like this:

Lindsey (running in from playing outside): “Mom! There’s an armadillo in the neighbors’ backyard!”

Me: “Um…okay.”

Lindsey: “It’s scared, and it can’t get out!”

Me (wondering how one can tell if an armadillo is scared): “It’ll probably get out the same way it came in.”

Lindsey: “But what if it can’t find the way out? It might be terrified!”

I told Lindsey that if she wanted to, she could keep watching it through the fence, and she’d probably see it find its way out soon enough. Lindsey went back outside.

A few minutes later, both Lindsey and Jessica came inside. Lindsey told me that she had dug a hole under our fence so that the armadillo could find its way into our backyard. I wasn’t all too sure I wanted an armadillo roaming my backyard, but I was touched by Lindsey’s obvious concern for the armadillo and her kindness toward one of God’s creatures.

Me: “That was very kind of you to dig a hole and show the armadillo the way out.”

Jessica: “And while Lindsey was digging the hole, the armadillo came up and sniffed me. And then he realized, ‘Hey! You’re not an armadillo!’” (Lindsey later explained that the armadillo had gotten confused and thought maybe Jessica was an armadillo because she was down on all fours.)

The girls said that after Lindsey dug the hole, they backed away and went out of the yard, leaving the gate open so the armadillo could see a clear way out. The rest of the evening, Lindsey kept her distance from the armadillo so it wouldn’t get spooked, but she kept watch over the backyard. At one point, she saw the armadillo in our yard, and she was excited that it had made it out of the neighbors’ yard. The next time she looked, the armadillo was gone, and she was satisfied. She had rescued it and helped it make it to safety.

You know, armadillos aren’t very pretty. Actually, they’re ugly. And they don’t really perform any useful function. So there was no real reason for Lindsey to care like she did except that she saw a creature in distress, and her heart was moved to help it.

Which reminds me of a beautiful Bible passage. It’s found in the 10^th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, where Jesus is sending His disciples out to preach the good news. Before they go, He gives them instructions. “Don’t be afraid,” He says. And then He comes to the beautiful part: “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.”

In other words, He’s telling them, “God will take care of you. After all, He takes care of the sparrows, and you’re much more valuable.”

You’re more valuable than armadillos, too. And if God takes care of armadillos—which, in this case, He did through moving kind-hearted Lindsey to help one escape—then He will certainly take care of you.

In this case, the armadillo’s need was for a way out. That might be your need, too—a way out of temptation or a difficult situation. Or maybe your need is for something else—financial relief, wisdom, or even a friend. Whatever your need, God knows what it is, and He has plans to meet your need. It would be an insult to God’s character to suggest that Lindsey had more compassion on that armadillo than God has on you.

Your need may not have been met yet. But just as Lindsey made escape possible before the armadillo actually walked through the fence and then the gate, so God is arranging to meet your need even before you can see or make use of His provision.

One day, you will walk through the gate into His provision. Until then, remember that He is at work, orchestrating all things to come together at their proper time for you.

So keep checking the fence, and when you find a way under, look for the gate.

Then walk through it.

Matthew 10:29-31—Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.

When You Really Need to See God

Megan Breedlove August 25, 2014 0 Comments

Only one flight away from reaching home after a week-long absence, I was waiting at the airport for my plane to arrive at the gate. I don’t mind waiting in airports; being by myself gives me a chance to, well, be by myself. I can read or surf the web for a little while without worrying about being interrupted.

But I knew my children were eager for me to be home. They had called me almost every evening during my absence, and that day (as my husband told me through text messaging) they were getting anxious to have me back. So when my plane pulled up to the gate, I took a picture of it, and I texted it to my husband so he could show it to the kids and tell them Mommy’s plane was almost ready to bring me home.

I expected to receive a text back from him that said something like, “Yay! They can’t wait!” But the text I got instead said, “They want to see a picture of YOU. Take a selfie.” So I managed to take a selfie that didn’t make me look like I was looking into a fun-house mirror (it’s always awkward to get the right angle), and I sent it.

I thought it was sweet that they wanted to see me, not just my plane. I understood why. When you miss somebody, you want to see the person herself, not just a picture of a metal tube with wings. When you long for someone, you want her presence, not just a shot of the vehicle that will bring her to you.

It’s the same way with God—only sometimes, we don’t realize it. Here’s what I mean: what we really need, spiritually speaking, is God’s presence. We need God Himself. The problem is that we sometimes think that what we really need are the benefits He provides—and His presence, while a nice add-on, isn’t strictly necessary.

We couldn’t be more wrong. Yes, we need God’s strength, comfort, wisdom, and so on. But they are not commodities God dispenses apart from His presence. They only come to us when we are in His presence.

When you ask God for strength, and He gives it to you, it’s because God has shown up in your situation to help you handle it. When you weep for His comfort and receive it, it’s because God Himself is there, putting His arms around you. When you need wisdom to know what to do in a particular situation, and suddenly it’s there, that’s because God Himself is nearby, sharing His thoughts with you.

Never forget that God is a very personal, intimate God who longs for a deep relationship with you. How it must grieve Him when you—or I—desperately beseech Him for things He can do for us, never realizing that what we really need is He Himself. That’s what Jesus meant when He told His followers to seek God first, and they would not only have Him, but they would have everything else they needed.

Not only that, but God won’t just sort of mail His responses to you while He sits up in heaven somewhere, distant. He’s going to deliver them to you personally, which works out great, because what you really want is not merely the gift. You want God to show up, and that’s what He’s promised to do.

Don’t set your sights so low as to ask merely for the gift when you could have the Giver, too.

Matthew 6:33—But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. (ESV)

Jeremiah 29:13-14a—You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the LORD.

Created by God

Megan Breedlove August 4, 2014 0 Comments

My 9-year-old son Kenny has recently developed an interest in origami. He loves checking out how-to books from the library and spending hours at home folding square papers into intricate creations. He’s really good at looking at the instructions and then producing the desired outcome.

I, on the other hand, am not. Recently, Kenny tried to teach me to make an origami crane. I tried—really, I did—but I kept getting lost or doing something wrong. “Well, that’s okay. It’s only your first try,” Kenny would say. Or, “Well, that’s one way to do it. But how about you do it like this?”

I admire his abilities, especially since they are in an area in which I am not skilled. I also admire the amount of effort and persistence it takes to produce a whole dining room table full of creations, and then some.

But as impressive as Kenny’s abilities are in creating his works of art, God’s abilities in creating you and me are even more impressive.

After all, God started with nothing. No instructions, no raw materials. He uses the process of two tiny cells coming together, but it is ultimately He who grants life to the combination of cells, thereby forming a person. And He is the One who arranges for the exact combination of DNA to occur in order to produce the human being He wants to create.

Your life was not an accident.

Your particular combination of genetics, skills, and personality is not an accident.

Nor were they determined by your earthly mother and Father.

They were ordained—chosen, appointed—by God.

Just as Kenny sets out to create something he has in mind, God set out to create you. In fact, He had you in mind since before the world began. Then, at just the right time, He caused just the right DNA to combine to create the you He wanted you to be, and He breathed life into that teeny, tiny one-celled human being.

Some of you may have grown up being told that you are nothing special. Maybe you were rejected not by your parents, but by a friend, family member, or even spouse. But God didn’t think of you before the foundation of the world, and then go to all the trouble to make you just as He did, because He was creating junk. He created you according to the design of His infinite creativity and declared you to be a marvelous creation.

You, precious mom, were designed and brought to life by God. You have the particular qualities and characteristics that you do because He made you that way. Why? Two reasons. First, He has a plan for you and your life, and He made you according to the exact specifications necessary to enable you to fulfill that plan. And second—and I hope this touches you deep in your heart, just as it touches me—He wanted an intimate relationship with a person like you.

Have you ever thought about that? That God wanted a relationship with someone just like you? It’s true. No one else in this world will relate to God in exactly the same way you will, and that’s by His design.

What an incredible thought—that Almighty God, who doesn’t need anybody, wanted you and me.

Think about that this week. Let it sink into your soul.

Psalm 139:14—I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.

God’s Heart for You

Megan Breedlove June 23, 2014 0 Comments

I have been blessed with wonderful in-laws. They love me deeply, and they show it. They also pour out their love on my children.

One of the ways in which they do this is to invite the kids to come stay with them each summer during the week their church holds Vacation Bible School. The kids not only get to attend a quality VBS program, but they get a special week on their own with Grandma and Pampa. During the week, they get to do all kinds of things with their grandparents—make cookies, play the Wii (we don’t have one, so this is an extra treat), go on day trips to places they’ve never been.

This year, when VBS week rolled around, I drove the children to their grandparents’ home to drop them off. I planned on staying overnight (they live 4.5 hours away, non-stop) and leaving the next morning.

As I was getting my few things packed up that next day, I paused for a moment, thinking about what else needed to be done. Kenny, who was standing near me, said, “You know, Mom, that even though I won’t be with you this week, my heart will always be with you.”

My heart was touched. I thanked him, hugged him, and told him how much I would miss him. I reminded him that he is a great kid, and that every day, because I wouldn’t be there to say it, I wanted him to imagine me telling him, “Kenny, you’re a great boy.”

Kenny grinned and hugged me back.

It was a sweet, precious moment—Kenny wanting to make sure I knew that he loved me, even though he wouldn’t be there in person to express it.

God did something very similar in sending the Holy Spirit to His disciples. Jesus knew—and He explained to them—that He was going back to heaven, back to the right hand of the Father. He knew they wouldn’t be able to see Him anymore, yet would still need to hold onto the things He had said to them. He told them the Holy Spirit, whom the Father would send, would remind them of everything—including the fact that He loved them deeply.

In other words, God the Father made provision for the disciples to continue to feel Jesus’ love for them even when He was no longer physically present.

As Christians, you and I have the same Holy Spirit today. The Holy Spirit is not some nebulous Being—He is a very real Person who lives in the heart of each Christian, of you and me. And part of the reason why He lives there is to remind us how much God loves us.

One day, we will see God face to face, and we will believe His love and begin the eternity-long process of comprehending it. But until then, we need to hear about God’s love over and over.

If God had done nothing more than allow Jesus to be put to death on the cross for us, even that would have been a far greater expression of love than we deserve. But He also gave us the written Word to remind us of His love, and He gave us the spoken Word (spoken Spirit-to-spirit) to remind us as well. “I will not leave you comfortless”, Jesus says in John 14:18 (KJV). “I will come to you.” And He does, in the Person of His Spirit.

He’s there anytime you need Him. When you feel unloved, when you’re rejected or feeling unwanted, He’s there to minister to you. Pour out your feelings to Him. Then listen for His Spirit within you replying, “My precious child, you are loved far more than you know.”

John 14:25-26—”All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” (NIV)

No Clue

Megan Breedlove March 3, 2014 0 Comments

I remember my mom’s taking me to the park when I was a little girl. We went often, because I absolutely loved it. Going to the park is one of my favorite memories of childhood. Now that I have children of my own, I take them to the park, and they love it as much as I always did.

The most recent time we went to a nearby park, Timmy surprised me. Instead of wanting to spend all his time on the swings, he decided to run around exploring the park and the play equipment. I let him roam free and followed a few steps behind, far enough away that he could feel like he was on his own, yet close enough I could step in if I needed to.

That’s because while the park is fun, there are dangers involved. A little guy like Timmy, who at the time was not quite two, is almost completely unaware of the bad things that could happen. He could fall down. He could walk too close to the front of the swings and get knocked over by a child who couldn’t stop in time. He could fall off a piece of equipment. Worse yet, an adult might pose a threat.

So, though I don’t like to think about these things, I followed close behind Timmy in case one of them actually happened. Because it was possible. Even though Timmy had no clue, I did. So I protected him.

In the same way—though far more perfectly—God protects us from a host of dangers of which we’re unaware. He does this primarily in two ways: by sticking close to us, and by warning us away from danger areas.

Just as I wouldn’t have let Timmy wander to close to the creek running through the park, God warns us away from people, situations, and places He knows are dangerous. If we insist on pushing past His boundaries, we are foolishly heading into danger. Likewise, in the same way that I stuck close to Timmy, God always stays close to us. He’s always right there with us to protect us from dangers we may not even be aware we need protecting from. As we roam freely (within the boundaries He’s laid out for us) and play to our heart’s content, God stays by our side in case we need Him.

Timmy didn’t need to be made aware of all the dangers; it was sufficient for him to go on his merry way within the appropriate boundaries I’d set for him. You and I don’t need to know all the dangers we’re being protected from; we just need to trust God that if He says “Stop!” there’s a perfect reason for it, and to obey His directions.

It’s fun following a little kid around at a park. But it’s even more fun being the little kid who gets to play. That’s what you and I are: God’s children. We’re the ones getting to have fun while God stays watchful and makes sure nothing outside His will happens to us.

The next time you take your kids to the park, think not only about how you protect them, but about God’s protection of you. Thank Him for what He’s protecting you from right this minute, whether you know the danger or not. Thank Him that He’s always on duty so you can play. And thank Him that He knows exactly the right boundaries to prescribe—boundaries that won’t keep you away from fun, but will instead provide you the largest, best space in which to play freely.

What an amazing God we have!

Psalm 121:4—Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.