Who Am I?

Imposter Syndrome – have you heard of it? 

It’s the feeling someone gets that they are not really qualified to be in a certain position or speak to a certain situation, even though they do in fact have the qualifications. 

I remember having this feeling as a new occupational therapist just starting out.  I had the knowledge, but putting it into practice is an entirely different thing. 

As I have entered a new season of writing about Biblical topics, I sometimes have this same feeling.  I have not been to seminary, but I have done a great deal of study as a layperson and audited a few seminary classes.  Still, sometimes I think, “Who am I, to be writing about such weighty things?”.

Imposter Syndrome seems to be a common malady when someone is given a job to do and is wading into the unknown.

I’m reminded of the story of Moses and the burning bush.  God met Moses there and told him his assignment. But right away Moses comes in with his excuses, “Who am I?” he says, “that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” He could not conceive that he had what it took, that anyone would believe his experience, that it was his mission to free his people. 

God’s answer to Moses is “I will be with you.”   Shouldn’t that be enough?  But still Moses doubts and wants more information.  He wants to put more of the pieces in place before he goes forward. 

How like us – we want all the answers before we begin.  Instead of taking a first step in faith, we want to plan and calculate, and have everything figured out, often to the point where not much faith is even required.   

Moses begins to reason, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?”

God answers with, “I AM WHO I AM.”   

So while Moses says, “Who am I?”, God answers with, “I AM.” 

“I AM the God of your fathers.” 

 “I AM” has heard the cry of his people and He will deliver them. 

He is everything we need, and He will equip us for what He calls us to do.

So the next time you feel that prompting, that nudge to do something bold for the Kingdom, don’t ask “Who am I?”

Instead, trust in “I AM.”

There Is Jesus

In Matthew 25, Jesus gives us a picture of him separating people as a Shepherd would separate sheep from goats.  The “sheep,” who saw the hurting and met their needs, will inherit the kingdom prepared for them before the foundation of the world. The “goats,” who did not care for those around them, will be separated from him.

How we loved and lived out the gospel matters.  Did we feed the hungry, give the thirsty something to drink, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, visit the sick and imprisoned?

Sometimes we need the reminder that when we see anyone in need, there is Jesus. 

He loves each one. 
He made each one in His image. 

And He wants us to see each one in every face we gaze into. 

I’m reminded of the powerful quote from Les Miserables –
“To love another is to see the face of God.”

There Is Jesus

Each person you see
Is different in some way
But made in God’s image
He is the one who molded the clay

Jesus became one of us
The Word became flesh
He taught us God’s truth
Words of life and rest

He said when we see those 
Hungry or in need
Sick or in prison
Naked or thirsty

We’re looking at Him
He told us so
When we care for the least of these
It’s as though

We’re doing it for Him
As we feed hungry mouths
Welcome the stranger
Or wipe a fevered brow

So be careful what you do
Because He is among us
Wherever you see a need
There is Jesus

~Michelle Dowdy

Pick It Up

Pick It Up

The paralyzed man’s friends wanted to get him in the Presence of Jesus, but there was no room in the house where He was teaching. So what did they do? They formulated a plan. This plan had a little “redneck” in it, and I can only imagine the conversation and ingenuity that went into the plan – but they took the tiles off the roof of the house and lowered the man down on his mat, right into crowded room.

The Scripture says when Jesus saw “their faith,” he said, “Man, your sins are forgiven you.” Right away this should bring to mind how important the right friends are. The right friends will bring you to Jesus, will pray for you, will be there for you. No doubt the man’s own faith also played a part, because presumably he agreed to the plan, so when Jesus said, “their faith,” he was likely referring to all of them.

Then Jesus said to the man, “I say to you, rise, pick up your bed and go home.” The spiritual healing was followed by the physical healing. The Scripture says this man was paralyzed – not just debilitated and maybe he could muster up the strength to get up at various times – but paralyzed in some way. So his ability to rise as Jesus instructed him caused amazement in the whole room.

Why did Jesus include the instruction for the man to pick up his bed?

Could it be that he wanted the man to know he was not coming back to that place, to the place of needing the mat? What was the man’s response? He picked it up and “went home, glorifying God.” He immediately gave praise and honor where it was due. The mat, the thing that had supported him, he now had control of.

How many of us, though, when Jesus has done great things for us, don’t pick up our mat, so to speak, but continue to try and lie in the mess he saved us from? Maybe we leave the “mat,” in case we want to go back to it; we allow it to control us rather than us having control of it.

Don’t leave the remnant of your problem, but pick it up, and put it in its proper place.

Don’t let the past you’ve overcome be a part of your future.

(Luke 5:17-26)

A Moment

We sing a song called “Here I Am,” and one of the lines is,

“A moment in Your presence can change my whole direction.”

Everything can change in a moment. 

Any number of decisions made in a moment can have lasting effects. 

But what about a moment when God meets you? 

When He turns it all around.

A moment with Him can change everything. 

I think about those kinds of moments sprinkled throughout the gospels where people met Jesus.

Jesus cast seven demons from Mary Magdalene, and she became one of his followers. 

And who was it that came to the empty tomb first, the one who first announced his resurrection?

Mary Magdalene – the one with the questionable past who was forever changed by Him.

It matters not where you’ve come from, where you’ve been, or what you’ve done.

He can change you too, in a moment.

The Manna Didn’t Keep

Remember how, in the wilderness, when God sent the Israelites manna, they were told to only collect enough for that day?  He said he was about to “rain bread from heaven” for them (Exodus 16:4).  Each was to bring in enough for their family, so some had more, some less, but everyone had a day’s supply.  If they tried to store it overnight, it spoiled and bred worms. 

The manna didn’t keep.

It was miraculous provision, but only for a day.  It was a test of sorts, a matter of trusting God each day to give what was needed. 

It was enough.

When Jesus taught his disciples how to pray and said, “Give us this day our daily bread,” He was no doubt thinking about this very instance, were God’s people learned the lesson of trusting Him for their daily needs.   

In John 6, Jesus says that He is the bread of life, the bread that has come down from heaven.  He said, “Your fathers ate manna in the wilderness, and they died.  This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.  I am the living bread that came down from heaven.  If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.  And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh” (v. 49-51).

He is the daily bread we need.

We can trust in Him.

How Does Your Church Grow?

How is your church going, or rather, growing?

Human growth and development can be a metaphor for so many things. The formation of an embryo is not unlike church growth.  It starts out with a few cells.  Those cells begin to differentiate and form organs with different functions – the heart, the brain, the liver, the muscles, etc.  The skeleton begins to form, the neural tube “zips up,” and then we have a structure that can hold the baby up. 

The same can be said of the church.  A church may begin with a handful of people with a dream to reach a community for Christ and minister to each other.  As  the fellowship grows, it needs a structure – a structure of deacons and elders as the New Testament prescribes.  As those with different gifts come into the fellowship, the church puts those in place to fulfill different areas of ministry.  We need the “heart” of Children’s ministry, the “brain” of teaching ministry, the “muscle” to go out into the community with the gospel, and on and on the examples could go. 

We don’t all have the same gifts or the same function, but we are all members of one body.  (1 Corinthians 12:4-5, Romans 12:4-5). 

Where do you fit into the Body?  What is your function within it?
Are you in a church that will help you find out if you don’t know?

All those who are a part of the Body of Christ have a gift, and a role to play (1 Cor.  12). 

Slow Miracles



We recently rearranged the furniture in our living room.  We had the television placed above the fireplace and now our comfortable recliners that Mark and I love to sit in to relax at the end of the day, are oriented in that direction.  Two large windows on either side of the mantel look out on the woods. 

In the winter, the trees are absolutely bare, as far as the eye can see, stark and brown after shedding their leaves. 

But now Spring has come and with it new life. Weeks ago, the barren trees began to bud and now there is a lush canopy of green filling the space as we look out those windows.

“What a miracle!” I thought the other day. Really the difference in what we see as a miracle or business as usual, is sometimes just “time.”

Let me explain. 

If we had gone to bed one night and the trees were bare, and the very next morning, they were filled with mature leaves, we would have called that a miracle.  But because it happened over the course of a few weeks, we do not think about it as being a miracle.  New leaves coming gradually on the trees in Spring is “normal,” just like the sun rising and setting and all the fine tuning of the universe that keeps us predictably, yet miraculously, set on course for life to flourish.

In his book, “Miracles,” CS Lewis expresses this concept much more eloquently:

“God creates the vine and teaches it to draw up water by its roots and, with the aid of the sun, to turn that water into a juice which will ferment and take on certain qualities. Thus every year, from Noah’s time till ours, God turns water into wine. That, men fail to see… But when Christ at Cana makes water into wine, the mask is off.”

The mask is off indeed.  If we have eyes to see, we can know “his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, that have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world” (Romans 1:20).

So today, look around you for the miracles, even the slow ones. 

Sacred or Scared?

“Fear not,” or some variation of that phrase, is one of the most repeated refrains in the Bible.  Some sources say, depending on the translations, there are 365 such phrases, one for every day of the year!

We need those reminders to trust, especially when we look at our circumstances.  When we step out of the boat and find ourselves sinking fast.  When we look around and things seem hopeless, and we wonder where God is.  When anxiety rears its ugly head once again. 

God often calls us to a reversal of thinking.  Flip two letters around and “scared” becomes “Sacred.”

Whenever you find the enemy creeping in, the thief who comes only to steal, kill, and destroy, flip the script and instead be transformed by renewing your mind. 

When fear crouches at your door, remember who God is, and remember He is with you. 

If something is sacred it is holy, hallowed, set apart. 

Jesus prayed, “Hallowed be your name.”

God’s name is Holy. 

Jesus’ name is powerful. 

If we focus on that name, fears have to flee. 

Darkness departs. 

Hearts are healed. 

Lives liberated and transformed.   

Sacred. 

The Lord is near to all who call on him.  To all who call on him in truth.  (Psalm 145:18)

The One

There’s a well known quote that says, “Preach the gospel at all times. If necessary use words.” 

While I understand the meaning and intended sentiment – be so radically loving, humble, and kind that people know there is something different about you- I can’t help but think this stops far short of what Jesus commands us to do. 

The gospel message is not about your good behavior, although that’s an outgrowth of the Christian life.  People can be altruistic for a number of reasons and the motivation may not be tied, at least in their minds, specifically to the truth of the gospel.   But in a sense it is always rooted in the full revelation of God’s great love, because we are made in the image of God.  The moral law exists in us and this is in fact, historically, one of the strongest arguments for God’s existence. 

When we say, “Just look at my life, and you will see the gospel” – we can hope that is true, but we have to point people to the perfect life of Jesus. 

“Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17). We need to hear the full gospel message that calls us to a life of repentance and obedience. 

We’re called to tell about the One Life that can save us.  The Word who became flesh to walk among us – the One who healed the sick, opened blind eyes, and set the captives free.

We preach and teach about the One who was so radically loving and humble that he died a cruel death on a cross, asking God to forgive the ones who put him there. 

We’re commanded to open our mouths and speak about Him who after three days in the grave rose in power, victorious forever over death. 

We are called to “go and tell” about the One who changed everything, the Life that gives us life, if only we believe. 

We share the full truth and message of the gospel, always being prepared to give a reason for the hope that is in us (1 Peter 3:15)

We’re compelled to point others to the way, the truth, and the life .
To the living water.
To the bread that always satisfies.   

He is our hope. 
He is the One.

Preach the gospel.
And use words. 

Opportunity

Question:

Does prosperity cause you to look more and more like Jesus, or less?

I am reminded of the account of the “rich young ruler,” who asked Jesus how he could inherit eternal life.  From digging deeper into the text in Luke 18, and the Greek meaning of the words, we know that the man was quite wealthy and was likely an official of some kind.  Jesus reminds him of the law and the 10 commandments in answer to his question.  He assures Jesus, “I’ve kept all of this from my youth.” Even though he had kept the law, maybe he had an inkling there was something more – a more radical obedience that was necessary in his life. 

Jesus says, “There is one thing you still lack.  Sell all you have and give to the poor.”  No moderation – no compromise – but calling on the man to give up everything. 

Did this man’s possessions have a hold on his heart in such a way that instead of allowing abundance to catalyze thankfulness in his heart, it actually separated him from God?   Did he fail to acknowledge God’s blessing in his daily life?  Did he perhaps ignore the needs all around him?  This account in scripture is brief, so we can only speculate on those things. 

But does Jesus call us to this same level of sacrifice and radical giving today?  Were those words just for that man, for his heart and his situation, or are they for all of us?

So many preach a prosperity gospel, a gospel that focuses on blessings rather than blessing others, a gospel that misses the point.

I have seen opposite attitudes through the years toward money and possessions, in those who are very well off.  Some are givers, always looking for opportunities to help, and some are “hoarders” seemingly becoming even more miserly and focused on material wealth. 

Compared to the rest of the world, probably most people reading these words are considered “rich.” In our Western world of “more than enough” each one must determine in his or her heart what to give, and what to give up. 

Big changes often begin with something small. 

Maybe a good place to start is asking, “How can I bless one person today?”

Look for opportunity, and in seeking you will find.