Lessons from the Lanai (2)
The second little thing that struck me from our vacation came from Philippians 2…
2 :: Philippians 2 Vacation Motto ::
As I shared before, I struggled with the feeling that taking a luxurious vacation to Hawaii seemed indulgent, selfish. The sermon Joel preached right before we left was from Philippians 2–on humility. And he shared that the most miserable, joy-less way to live is to be selfish. Selfishness is the surest route to misery. Well, I sure did not want to be miserable on vacation! So if vacation is selfish and selfish is joyless, we needed to figure something else out! So, we decided that in order to have joy on our vacation, it was our job to “look out for the interests of others” (Phil 2:4). In other words, I’d look out for Jeff’s best, he’d look out for me, we’d both look out for Dutch, Dutch would look out for Heidi, and Heidi would just be her silly little self because that’s about all she can be right now. If we all tried to give each other the very best, most fun and wonderful time ever, we could count on the fact that our joy would be full. That would be the blessing of our vacation. Not selfishness, but other-ness.
And it was. Jeff amazed me by selflessly playing in the shallow water with our kids for hours and hours while I relaxed. He built a dozen sandcastles, “swam” in 6-inch deep water pretending to be a humpback whale, and stayed in the dark hotel room during naptime so I could lounge alone by the beach with my book. He got up every morning and took Dutch for a walk to get me coffee. I soaked and slow-cooked beans and mixed up simple yummy meals for the fam, brought picnics on the beach, and … actually I can’t think of anything else I did for anybody. I think I got spoiled on this trip. 🙂 The kids were, naturally, plenty selfish, but Dutch did a great job helping sister, he even carried her little pink Dora suitcase for her, and held her hand in the car to keep her happy. Sure, we had our share of selfish moments, but I think Philippians 2 will be my new vacation motto–if we all try to give each other the best, most wonderful time ever, then we all win.
And you know what happened? Somehow, while we were all trying to bless each other, our gracious heavenly Father schemed up an amazing Grand Finale to our trip. I get tears in my eyes just thinking about it because it so showed God’s tender love for us. While we were there I received a text message from a gal in my Bible study group, a family new to our church, who just happened to be visiting Maui at the same time, staying just 1/3 of a mile up the road from us. They invited us to visit their resort which was Hawaiian-heaven. No. Seriously. This place was amazing. I’ve never seen anything so beautiful. I thought Dutch’s eyes were going to pop out of his head as he swam around the tropical-paradise pool and swam under the huge waterfall into the underwater cave. Jeff, who had wanted to body-surf and snorkel the whole time but had instead spent his vacation building sand-castles, got to swim on their amazing beach, body surf, and use their snorkel gear while they played with our kids on the beach. It was like God had planned the whole week to give us this extra-special kiss from Him, and He allowed us to get to know this wonderful family from church. We drove away that evening from their hotel, pulled over the car, and all thanked God for orchestrating that amazing circumstance. The best part about it was it was unmistakably a God-thing. The best part of blessing is the God behind it all.
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So now we are home. There is no place like it. When we walked in the door our house was 49 degrees, and today it is pouring rain. But oh do I love home! And how much do I long to be a more thankful, joyful, contented woman than before. God has brought us so far, and yet we have so far to go, don’t we? I rejoice that He is so patient with us and gracious toward us. This hymn keeps echoing in my heart:
Jesus Jesus how I trust Him!
How I’ve proved Him o’er and o’er!
Jesus Jesus, precious Jesus!
O for grace to trust Him more!
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Lessons from the Lanai (1)
Ok, I hesitate even writing about our recent trip to Maui because I am well aware of the fact that perhaps ya’ll back here in the freezing rain do not want to hear chipper little me running at the mouth about some little spiritual lesson I learned while lounging on the white sands of a Hawaiian beach eating fresh pineapple. I will not lie. It was glorious. It was beyond glorious. It was a God-kiss blessing that I will never forget. It was probably the best family-memory time we have ever had. Of course there were highs and lows, but there were times when I was so overwhelmed by God’s graciousness to us that my eyes filled up with tears in the middle of a swim in the pool. Not just that it was neat to be on a tropical island, but it was so just God. I picture our entire trip like God plopping us down in the middle of a big wide-open space, and then pouring out a huge bucket of His blessing smack dab on our heads. We did nothing to earn it; He was just gracious and we sat and soaked it all in. And for that I am so thankful beyond words. And now that we’re back, if you will allow, I would love to share two brief life-lessons that struck me during our trip.
1:: When Everything’s Gravy ::
Believe it or not, not everyone on the heavenly island of Maui is happy. I mean, sure most people were happy, sitting on the sands looking out over breathtaking vistas, pointing excitedly toward the dozen humpback whales we saw, breaching and blowing their shooting spray high into the ocean air. Children played excitedly in the warm aqua ocean, splashing and pointing at tropical fish and tiny crabs scurrying this way and that. But when we first arrived Jeff and I had to chuckle at a little display that gave us perspective right off the bat.
We had just gotten our rental car, and had been traveling for about 8 hours–we were exhausted, hot, sooo hungry, and SO excited to see the beach. We were a mix of giddy and exhausted–not sure whether to rejoice or complain. Ever been there? As we pulled out of the rental car lot, the car ahead of us stopped at the gate. The man got out of his car and started yelling at the attendant, pointing at a dozen or so tiny little dings on the sides of his rental car. He was obviously irate that he, a distinguished man with such great attention to detail, would have to ride in such a jalopy. (Mind you, this was Budget rental car, what did he expect?). The poor attendant, whose job was simply to press a button and allow cars to exit, stood and smiled amicably. I was thankful that he didn’t seem offended or ruffled, because I wanted to jump out of the car and hug the attendant and tell him I was sorry he’d received such verbal abuse. The funny part was that the man in the car sped off fuming without realizing that the trunk of his car was wide open. Mr. Attention-to-detail-man must have not noticed this detail in his cloud of anger. We drove by him down the road when he’d pulled over on the shoulder to shut his trunk.
I don’t mean to make fun of that man, we’ve all be there, right? Allowed an insignificant inconvenience to get us all bent out of shape? I certainly have. I’ll admit there were moments on the 5 1/2 hour plane-ride (which, by the way, of the 11 total hours on the plane my children did not sleep one single minute. What is wrong with them???), when I thought, “Why again are we doing this?”
But what that little scene did was serve as a valuable reminder, right from the get-go. When we were just making the choice whether to rejoice or complain–the car rental guy let us see things clearly. Here we were, the most privileged of privileged, flying on jets and visiting exotic islands and experiencing the finest of luxuries, and yet selfishness could cause a person to be a fool. An absolute blethering fool, yelling at a parking attendant because of a tiny ding in the car. I vowed at that moment and asked God to let me be thankful for everything, to please spare me from being foolish, and instead to see everything as gravy.
But during the trip here was the wonderful realization: When we keep our lives simple, everything is gravy. I love that. Going on this trip made me more than ever want to lead a simple life, and cultivate a simple environment for my kids–an environment of thankfulness for everything, rejoicing in everything.
For example, we got the cheapest hotel we could find that had a kitchen. We all slept in the same room–Dutch, Jeff and I shared a bed and Heidi was in the port-a-crib at our side. I LOVED it. It was so wonderful. It had an unusual beach front, but it was situated right next to a park that had reef which blocked the waves and created a perfect little wading-type area in the ocean where the kids could play and explore all day long with no worry of waves or rip currants. We ate out one meal the whole week, and the rest of the time we ate beans and rice and peanut butter sandwiches I had brought in our carry-on. We splurged on 6 fresh pineapples from the farmer’s market and some fresh pineapple salsa and that’s what we ate. All week. And you know what? We loved it! We exulted in God’s creation and built sandcastles and chased fish and crabs and swam and splashed and laughed ourselves silly. The way we looked at it–we were on the most beautiful island we could imagine. Everything was gravy.
I certainly don’t mean I do this perfect or mean to toot my own horn like we have this figured out. Our trip was a beautiful moment of simplicity and clarity and I just long for this attitude in all of life. The bottom line is that we have been saved from the pit of hell by a gracious God who loved us and died for us, called us His own, has redeemed us and called us and has wonderful plans for us. Everything is gravy. ANY good we get here on earth is just icing on the cake. We are SO blessed. This whole vacation was worth it if only for that one little lesson. That is joy. When everything is gravy. And I pray that poor man in the rental car comes to know the joy of Jesus, or perhaps he already does and that was just a momentary lapse. There are plenty of times (every day!) that I have acted like him, complaining about ridiculousness when in reality I’m surrounded by paradise. We all can use a little dose of this perspective, amen? Everything is gravy.
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Frugal Friday: The Simple Diet (3)
If you’re just joining us, we’ve been talking the last few weeks about ways to dramatically cut our grocery budget and eat wholesome, healthy food as well. To review the journey to this place, feel free to read the Food Stamp Challenge, a project seeking to make healthy whole eating affordable for everyone. The Simple Diet is just an overview for anyone wanting to take the plunge of reducing that food budget, and feed their families with fresh wholesome food (and do so simply!). So far we’ve covered:
- Simple Step 1: Eat oatmeal.
- Simple Step 2: Simplify snacks!
- Simple Step 3: Think whole. (Guest post)
Today we’ll be finishing our topic on Simple Step 3: Think Whole.
Now most of us are aware that eating “whole foods” is good for us. The store Whole Foods is making a killing selling us healthy foods (and I love it there!). But, if the goal is also to simplify our budgets and free up as many resources as possible for giving and blessing our families and those around us, we have to be wise in what it means to “eat whole”. Here are 3 easy components of think whole.
1. Whole Grain:
Again, we all know this, right? But when there are 27 types of bread out there that all say whole grain, and most of them are mostly just white flour with some bran sprinkled in, it can get complicated and time consuming trying to figure it all out. Plus, the real good healthy bread (think Dave’s Killer–yum!) is soooo expensive. So, this is the SIMPLE diet, right? Here’s all you have to do: Buy whole wheat flour. That’s it. That’s all you have to do.
The easiest way to be sure you consume whole grains is to only buy whole grains. 🙂 Simple, right? I buy only two flour items: whole wheat flour and whole wheat pasta. Yes, as always, if you have the freedom in your time and budget, have a blast with buying rye flour and spelt flour and a fun variety of pancake mixes and so on and so forth. I could go hog wild at Bob’s Red Mill. But for Simple Diet? Two items. Whole wheat flour and whole wheat pasta. From these two items you can make pancakes, bread, crepes, spaghetti, mac ‘n cheese, tortillas, waffles…anything you want. Two items. At Winco whole wheat flour is $.39/lb. and many shapes of whole wheat pastas are around $.90/lb. So. Cheap. And yes, I simply substitute whole wheat flour for any recipe that calls for white flour.
*That oatmeal is another great source of whole grains. Other delicious, easy, and inexpensive whole grains to keep in stock are brown rice, barley, wild rice and quinoa. Wild rice and quinoa are more expensive, but great as a special treat. Brown rice and barley are way cheap at Winco (less than $.50/lb.) and are wonderfully healthy staples. To really keep cost down just stick to whole wheat flour, whole wheat pasta, oats, brown rice and barley. You can make everything you need out of these. (Refer back to bread recipe, bread machine link, and the best bread machine cookbook.)
2. Whole Animal
Beef:: Now I must confess we’re not big meat eaters. You won’t find us buying a whole cow, or even half a cow (but that’s the way to do it if you are a meat-fan!). I buy small amounts of ground beef when it’s on sale (organic, grass-fed), and we don’t eat steak. No doubt about it–meat is expensive. So we do what millions of others have done for hundreds of years before us–stretch it. Make it last. I use very small amounts in recipes, instead adding more veggies and grains.
Fish:: We love fish. We eat a lot of salmon and yes, it’s expensive, but it can be stretched! As I shared here: Buy the fish fresh and whole, and ask the fish lady (is there a name for people who cut fish?) to fillet it for you and give you the spine and scraps and head (wrapped up, don’t worry you don’t have to stick it in your purse). Then you can cut the filleted fish into 2-3 oz. servings at home, and freeze individually. It’s actually very inexpensive like that (about $1/serving). And having it pre-frozen in servings is great for our portion control. Then you can dump all the scraps, spine and head into a pot and make fish stock. It’s delicious and wonderful for making seafood chowder (which is a great way to stretch that salmon).
Chicken:: Of course this is where we all live, right? We eat chicken more than anything else. Again–the Simple and frugal and healthy way is to buy the whole chicken. Although I bought whole organic chickens for a while, I’ve recently been buying Draper Valley chickens which are local and raised naturally. Thriftway runs sales occasionally for $.79/lb. That’s a great deal. Buy as many as they let you (they usually limit that price) and stick them in the freezer. We’ve already talked about chicken stock, so you’re an old hat at that by now.
We don’t buy pork or shellfish or any other kind of meat. Again, if you have the freedom in the budget, great. But for simplicity sake you can certainly get buy with just these three meat items–and use the whole thing.
3. Whole Dairy:
I know less about this area, simply because we aren’t milk drinkers. Many people swear by raw milk, but we simply don’t consume enough to make it worth our time and money. So I simply buy small amounts of organic whole milk when it’s on sale, Tillamook cheese when it’s under $4 for a 2lb. block, and organic eggs sporadically. We buy real butter when on sale for under $2/lb. Heather talked about this in her article last week.
In summary, a Simple Diet grocery list, for all these items would simply be:
Whole wheat flour, whole wheat pasta, brown rice, barley, oats. Grass-fed beef, some salmon, a whole chicken. Whole milk, some cheese, eggs, and real butter.
There’s the grocery list! Add fruits and veggies (and peanut butter!) and that’s really enough to live on. Simple.
Next we’ll look specifically at Simple Lunch. Happy whole eating!
Exodus 13: Why God Likes the Long Way (and why that’s ok)
I remember when we lived in San Jose, right after the bottom fell out from under us and we were wondering how one earth we fell off the cliff of God’s will, I remember our pastor from back home said to me, “With God the shortest distance between two points is often a really long squiggly line.”
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Speaking of a squiggly line, can you see the red route that the nation of Israel took when God led them out of Egypt and into the promised land? Doesn’t that help put into perspective what is meant by “wanderings” in the desert. Good grief! It’s a good thing that I can’t seem a pictorial rendition of my own life’s wanderings; I know I’d see the endless red circles and shake my head: God, you’ve got to be kidding me.
So why does God take us on such a circuitous route? Let’s look at a few nuggets as related to the nation of Israel.
1. The long road leads to our success.
Scripture tells in Exodus 13 that
“When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines; although it was near. For God said, ‘Lest the people change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt.’ But God lead the people around the way of the wilderness toward the Red Sea” (vv17-18).
So here we see that God knew that no matter what way they took there would be opposition. Opposition is inevitable. So He chose the path that would force them to keep moving forward–for they had no other option (more on that tomorrow!). He knew that if they could see a back door, they’d take it and hurry scurry back to captivity as fast as their little sandals could take them. He chose that route that guaranteed they would stick to the plan.
In other words, it was His kindness that led them in circles. He was, by his sovereign plan, guaranteeing their success. Now, granted not all of them succeeded. An entire generation perished in the wilderness because of their disobedience. But God’s plan succeeded. Had they gone back to Egypt, then their children and all following generations would not have seen the promised land. But as it was, only those unfaithful died before seeing it–the children, and all the generations after that, did indeed see it. God fulfilled His promise, and his Kingdom work with the nation of Israel remains today.
2. The long road produces humility.
Deuteronomy 8:2 says,
“And you shall remember the long way that the LORD your God has lead you these forty years in the wilderness, that He might humble you…”
This is not saying that God humiliates us. I can’t defend this with Greek and Hebrew, but I believe there is a kind and gentle way that God produces humility in us that is not in the form of cruel humiliation. I often pray that God would allow me to humble myself but that He would save me from humiliation. That’s just being honest! I do want to walk in humility but I’d really rather not do something absolutely humiliating to get there. Anybody else? When our path is quick and easy we are so tempted to think it was our genius that got us there. The long road requires us to be desperately dependent on God’s grace and mercy. It is in His kindness that He chooses to humble us by the long road.
3. The long road reveals our hearts.
There’s more to Deuteronomy 8:2. It reads,
“And you shall remember the long way that the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commandments or not” (vv2-3). (See also Deut. 13:3, Judges 3:4, 2 Chronicles 32:31)
Now I have struggled with this one, and I’ll admit that just tonight Jeff and I spent the duration of our date night strolling through Bridgeport debating this one question. God already knows what’s in our hearts. So why would He need to do something to reveal it to Himself? Does He reveal it to Himself or to us?
I don’t know.
What I do know is that Scripture is clear that the long road tests us and therefore reveals what is in our hearts, the same way that an exam in school tests us in order to reveal what knowledge is in our minds. But since our heavenly professor knows all things, I’ll admit I can’t quite wrap my mind around all the ramifications of this.
Suffice it to say that our faith rises so the surface when we are faced with the adversity of a long road (James 1:7). It is revealed as it rises to the surface and it is refined and displayed for us to see, for God to see, for all to see–for His glory. We may not understand how all that works, but we can agree it does work.
That is at least a little bit of why God likes the long road.
Here’s why it’s ok:: (Other than the obvious reason of God being in charge.)
I’ve often marveled at Noah (57 days on dry land!), Moses, David, all those who endured loooooong slow roads on the way to the fulfillment of God’s promises. Never do I see them specifically whining or complaining about the waiting or the long road, they just do it. It’s almost as it isn’t an issue.
Because it’s not.
My parents love to go for road trips together. They’ve often opted to take the long way home, meandering up Hwy 101 or taking a scenic route up to Mt. Hood. Sure there’s a shorter way. But the point isn’t getting to a destination, it’s just being together.
The moment we get our eyes on our Beautiful Savior the long road won’t bother us. In fact, it will just afford us plenty of time to journey with the One we love. He is on the road with us. Yes, we may yearn and long for a promise to be revealed, for that first glimpse of the promised land that God has spoken of so often. But really, God Himself is greater than any promised land. The best part of the being part of the nation of Israel wasn’t getting to live in the promised land, it was getting to live with YAHWEH, the great I AM.
When I get my eyes off God, I become fixated on the end of the road. On “it”. On the thing. And the road seems excruciatingly long and the wait unbearable. But when I look and realize that the King of Kings is walking this road with me, all of a sudden it doesn’t matter anymore. It’s not about getting there. It is, in fact, a gloriously scenic road trip with the One I love. Even if the road is curvy (or takes me in circles!), I can rest assured that God is graciously leading me to success, producing in me humility, and revealing the inner parts of my heart as I wait. He is working all things for my good, but more importantly, He’s with me. And there’s no one I’d rather travel with than Him.
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In what way has the end goal distracted you from the Beautiful God who is right at your side? In what way can you enjoy whatever journey you are on today?