The Lord alone is our radiant hope
and we trust in him with all our hearts.
His wraparound presence will strengthen us.
As we trust, we rejoice with an uncontained joy
flowing from Yahweh!
Let your love and steadfast kindness overshadow us continually,
for we trust and we wait upon you!
Psalm 33:20-22 TPT
Watch Your Step
It was the flash of gold that caught my eye that morning. The reflection of golden aspens on newly formed ice covering the pond beside the mountain road glowed with photographic potential. I turned around, found a place to park, looked around for signs of bears or wolves, then carefully found my way down the embankment. The scene was as wonderful as I had hoped.
I knew the nights had not been cold enough yet to make the ice safe to walk on. I learned that lesson early in life. My friend fell through the ice on the creek near our house when we were kids. Fortunately, we were near the edge and the only damage done was to her new patent leather shoes and the adults’ confidence in our wisdom. I had no intention of testing the ice this time.
I started looking for a good angle, but a cluster of bushes hindered me from getting that one perfect shot. I found a gap and stepped around them onto the edge of the bank. It gave way. I slid down to the water landing on the ice. It didn’t hold me. Suddenly I was knee deep in freezing cold water. Worse than that, the muddy boggy bottom oozed around my feet grabbing my boots and refusing to let go.
Eventually, I struggled out, grateful for overhanging branches and deadwood turned walking stick. Climbing back up the embankment, I wondered how I could have ignored the wet earth and sudden drop on the other side of the overhanging grass near the edge.
I didn’t see the hazard because my eyes were on the gold.
Every year, I ask God for a word that will describe the next learning season I am walking into. My attention has been drawn (several times) to the word “circumspectly” found in the NKJV translation of Ephesians 5: 15 & 16:
See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
Circumspect is not a word that shows up often in modern English conversation. It comes from the Latin circum “around, round about” and specere “to look.” The Greek word is akribos “exactly, accurately, diligently.” Many modern translations use the English word “carefully.”
The picture seems to mean that to walk circumspectly is to walk very carefully, placing steps precisely, while being aware of the atmosphere and surroundings, metaphorically (and perhaps literally) speaking.
I don’t believe that everyone is at the same point on their journey, or that what is pertinent to me is pertinent to everyone. I’m not saying this is a prophetic word for the world in 2024. Maybe it’s just for me, but perhaps some of you can relate. It doesn’t take a prophetic word from heaven for anyone who is familiar with scripture, and looking around with eyes to see, to understand we live in perilous times, times where even those with platforms and titles can trip up.
Someone once told me that if you think you can’t be deceived, you already have been. Deception and distrust magnify each other. We can accept the wrong things and miss the right things by being too naïve or too wary. We can talk ourselves into or out of almost anything when we are unaware of our own unexamined motivations. Temptation is custom-made by the father of all con men and the evil one does not play fair. There is a reason why the Lord’s prayer includes the plea, “And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one…“
For me, walking circumspectly means listening to the still small voice saying, “Heads up! Pay attention. Proceed cautiously. Danger ahead. Lean on Me. I’ve got you.” It’s tempting to be distracted by the self-serving stuff, and by the seductive voice of the enemy of our souls. Not all attractive options spread before us are God’s ways. Without the wisdom and discernment he gives when we ask, and then applying it, we can find ourselves in a muddy bog before we know it.
I don’t know about you, but sometimes when I read reports and op-eds in the media from all manner of sources, I still don’t know who to believe even after employing research and critical thinking. When I see people I have admired exposed for serious misuse of power I am dismayed. I have questions!
Jesus said his sheep hear his voice. The book of Ephesians is full of God’s wisdom and advice on how to live wisely and walk circumspectly in this world where the evil one, although defeated, still has influence. God is good. He is not worried. He knows the way. Ask. Then follow through.
Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. (Ephesians 5:17)
The Lord is reminding me these are days when I need wisdom and discernment more than ever.
How about you?
I’m coming out of a year of more disappointment and loss than I have experienced in most of the past decade. The losses were not as dramatic as the death of my father, or moving away from a city full of friends I loved. The losses have been like an incessant, low, slow prairie wind blowing away a summer garden bit by bit. I’ve lost more friends, relatives, and former colleagues to death in the past few months than through the entire time of the pandemic. The count is at fourteen since spring flowers bloomed. Many were not as close as immediate family, some I spoke or wrote to regularly, and some I had not spoken to in months, if not years, but they still had an influence in forming who I am and we had a connection. The degree of pain from their loss surprised me. I want another deep conversation, another project to work on together, another evening of laughter.
This past month, I have taken time to process these and other losses before heading into the new year. Recently, I have also been disappointed by people, including myself, (especially myself) who promised more than they could deliver. I’ve seen exciting possibilities fade and blow away like dried leaves of grass and brittle browning petals. It’s hard to let go.
Usually I head into a New Years Day with optimism and a declaration that this is the year of breakthrough into greater things. I do believe that greater capacity to hold on to love and the empowering grace of God lies ahead. I do believe that his unfailing kindness will be with me all the days of my life and that I will see more of his goodness in the land of the living, but there is a bittersweet aspect to the view from here. In this place of the now and the not yet, there is a reconciling with the fact that all of us eventually die and the world goes on without us.
When my father was old and knew he didn’t have much time left on this earth, he talked to me about feeling the responsibility of keeping memories of dear ones alive. He was the last one who remembered his little brother and baby sister who died the same year and whose wooden grave markers in an untended cemetery have long since disintegrated in the harsh northern climate. He reminisced about characters who were old when he was just a lad. One time, without realizing it, he reached down to pet the dog, long since gone, who saved his life once. He warned me to prepare my heart to let go when I reached an age when old friends departed more frequently. “All flesh is grass,” he said, “but our spirits live on. I know I will see them again.”
It’s in seasons of leaving the past behind and choosing to move on that we realize how much comfort comes from knowing that whether we live or die, the Lord never forgets us. He never leaves us. His love is eternal. His mercies are ever new. Because He lives, I can face tomorrow.
As a father has compassion on his children,
so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him;
for he knows how we are formed,
he remembers that we are dust.
The life of mortals is like grass,
they flourish like a flower of the field;
the wind blows over it and it is gone,
and its place remembers it no more.
But from everlasting to everlasting
the Lord’s love is with those who fear him,
and his righteousness with their children’s children—
with those who keep his covenant
and remember to obey his precepts.
(Psalm 103:15-18 NIV)
Charis: Subject to Change 