Flying Higher Under Constraint

My earliest memory comes from when I was about two years old. Grandpa Minikus bought a kite and took Dad and Mom and I half a block down the road to the empty lot next to the huge Council Bluffs grain elevators. The kite was a brightly colored plastic. The day was also bright, but chilly; and the wind made me squint as it blew in my face.

Grandpa must have really talked up this kite flying experience, because to this day I can remember the suspense! It was a serious business and things had to be done just right. Mom and Dad stood off to one side, and I was to run next to Grandpa. He put the wing braces in and laid the kite out on the ground, pretty side down. The instructions were repeated again. I was to run my little legs very fast next to Grandpa’s long-legged, polio-stricken walk. “Ready?... Set?... Go!”

I remember running over the muddy, uneven ground for all I was worth, until... “Toni! Go get my shoe!” Grandpa was somewhere behind me and he sounded panicked. “Shoe?” I stopped running and turned around. There was Grandpa trying to balance on one leg and reel in kite string at the same time. And there was his shoe, a step behind and stuck in the mud! I remember tugging frantically at the shoe and making my way through the mud to hand it to him amidst the breathless laughter of my parents and Grandpa, who somehow managed to keep the kite afloat during this whole escapade!

Flying a kite still holds the same sense of adventure for me today as it did back then. When I was in Vancouver, Canada, a church member took us to English Bay to fly his two handed kite. Has anyone here ever had an opportunity to fly a two-handed kite?That was really fun, and scary too! Sometimes it felt as if it would lift me right off the beach! Somehow I feel like I am flying free, up there in the sky, when I am flying a kite.

Dad shared an illustration with me about a kite that helps explain the following two verses. See if you can figure out how these verses can be compared to a kite:

2Cor. 5:14 For the love of Christ constrains us;

John 15:10 If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love

These verses sound rather restrictive. We can only stay in His love if we keep His commandments? Where is the freedom in this?

It sounds even worse when you look at the definition for constrain (to keep in, compel). The love of Christ keeps us in? compels us? Sounds like force! Where’s the freedom?

Think of how a kite works. There is wind to pull it away. Gravity that tries to pull it down. And a string to keep it in (constrain it). In order for the kite to rise high in the air and soar around “freely,” it must be kept tightly in with a string. If the kite gets loose from the string it will fly around up there totally free for a brief while. Then what happens? Yep, it dips and dives and eventually crashes into the ground.

God’s commandments are like the string. They pull us toward the One who causes us to fly free. The commandments restrict us for sure. We can’t do this, wear that, eat this, say that, think this, act like that...

I know for myself, it is really easy to avoid restraint. I will make up all sorts of excuses and reasons why I don’t need to follow this or that...

Do you ever feel restricted by the commandments? Guess what. We should! If we don’t, maybe it’s because we aren’t letting them constrain us. Maybe we have cut loose. Maybe we are deciding for ourselves that this is OK, God doesn’t really care, that would be Pharisaical, only the fanatics stick that close to the commandments, after all God wants us to fly free...

But we will only stay afloat for a little while if we choose our own way and cut loose. We need these restrictions. The restrictions are what keep us flying in freedom. The tight connection is not to drag us down but to keep us up.

It’s true the commandments do restrict us -- they restricts us from crashing! In this windy world of sin and deadly grave-ity, the only way for our kite to fly free is to be constrained by the commandments of God.

Good News!

The Doctor said she thinks Mom's lump is just a lipoma (fatty tumor)! They won't mess with it unless it keeps growing and becomes a bother. They only advised her to keep an eye on it.

What a relief!

Life feels all new to me now. I learned something through all this that changed my paradigm, and I think differently or something. Can't really explain it. Probably most of you have been through a similar situation that has changed your perspective on life...

I am thankful for the new perspective, and for the good news!

Indispensable

It is not what one does that makes them indispensable; it is who they are.

My Mom is going to a clinic this Friday to have them look at a lump she has had for about a year now. It may be a fatty tumor and not a big deal at all. But the number of relatives in our family who have died of cancer, and the fact that two people I know lost loved ones suddenly (literally overnight), and the “what if” game that I always seem to play in my mind -- all have combined to cause me painful thoughts and a lot of crying.

Of course I know that God is always with me and with my Mom. I also know that He is in control and doesn’t allow anything to happen that is not for our ultimate good. But that doesn’t mean that Mom will be OK and live forever. In fact, the reality of this sinful world is that she will most certainly die. It’s just a matter of time.

My selfish thoughts ran like this one night: “What would I do if Mom died soon? Who would watch out for me, send me care packages, ask if I am eating enough, spend hours on end helping me balance my checkbook, answer “female issue” questions, straighten out my emotions and hormonal thinking, give me that motherly advice... What if I met someone who wanted to date me and Mom wasn’t around to talk to? [Of course my Dad is there for me! But everyone knows that a Dad can’t be a Mom in such situations - and visa versa.] What if I got married and she wasn’t there to see? What if I had kids someday and Mom wasn’t around to ask advice from? How bitterly painful it would be to have so many things to want to tell her...”

The thought came to mind that God would provide someone to take that place for me. I know many women who would gladly do their best to be a mom to me. But this thought didn’t help AT ALL. No doubt God would provide someone to do the things a mother would do for me. But no one can be Mom! It isn’t what Mom does that makes her indispensable to me; it is who she is.

In this age of materialism, life is all about producing -- work, work, work, accomplish, succeed, make it happen... It’s so easy to be sucked into the thinking that it is what people do that makes them worth something. We even see this thought in the opposite end of the spectrum. Those who have done something terrible in the past are considered to be more worthy of resentment. We value people according to what they do instead of who they are.

Considering the possible loss of my Mom has given me a new perspective on the value of each person. It’s not what you do that makes you indispensable; it is who you are.