Casandra Martin

My son hates green beans. Seriously hates them. We have tried everything from threats to bribes to get him to eat them, but he won’t budge. I realize that some will see his profound aversion to green beans as a parenting failure, but it is what it is. He will go out of his way to avoid them. He will tell others that they need to be shunned. He refuses to take them into his mouth or touch them in any way.

Maybe there is a lesson to be learned from the way he hates green beans.

“…a time to love, and a time to hate;” – Ecclesiastes 3:8a

As Christians, we are saved and motivated by love. We learn early that love is the lens through which we need to see others and interact with the world. We are to love the Lord with everything we are, and love our neighbors as ourselves. We know that God is love, so while loving is not always easy, we understand it to be our focus. But a time to hate? It doesn’t seem to fit.

“There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him:” (Proverbs 6:16) There are things that God hates. Hates is a strong word, but there it is. As deep as His love is, there are things that He hates. Pride, lies, violence, wickedness, evil intention, falsehood, and disunity. These are things that provoke a strong reaction in God’s heart. They are things that we should hate as well. As we train our hearts to look like Jesus, we must learn not only to love as He loves, but to hate what He hates.

My Jesus Resolution today is to learn the green bean lesson. Hating something means that I refuse to take it into my heart. I avoid it, walk around it, and go out of my way to keep from touching it or letting it touch me. Hate has its place because it teaches my heart to shun the things that cause God’s heart to grieve. Taking time to both love and hate stretches my heart to rest more fully in the image of Jesus.

We are a nation of noise. Quietness has given way to constant sound. There is rarely a moment from the time we get up until bedtime that is not filled with some sort of media clatter. We turn on the television when we walk in the door, the radio when we get in the car, and our earphones when we head outside. These aren’t all bad things, but I do wonder if we have lost something profound by flooding our souls with constant noise.

The wisdom writer seems to share the same concern. He writes that there is “…a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;” – Ecclesiastes 3:7b

There are many places in the Bible that talk about how we are to speak. Rarely, though, does God’s Word have to tell us to talk more. The opposite, however, is definitely true. Repeatedly, the Bible tells us about the necessity and wisdom of being quiet. Shhh. Let’s be silent, and listen.

“Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. To draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil. Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few.” – Ecclesiastes 5:1-2

“Be still, and know that I am God.” – Psalm 46:10a

“A fool gives full vent to his spirit, but a wise man quietly holds it back.” – Proverbs 29:11

My Jesus Resolution today is to be like Job. There is a moment in Job 40:4 when Job finally understands that the best thing for him to do is to put his hand over his mouth and be quiet. My soul needs to hear the full resonance of God’s glory. My imagination needs time to stretch out into the expanses of His promises. My heart needs the opportunity to absorb the richness of His grace. Quietness helps me be small. Stillness encourages humility. It reminds me that the world is big, and God is bigger. Shhhhh…

It is embarrassing, really. I wanted to make a special wedding present for someone I love. I picked out the fabric, carefully sorted the different thread colors, studied the pattern, and imagined the smiles, oohs and aahs that would erupt when the gift was opened.

The pattern was rather intricate. There was a place for the couple’s initials, a beautiful landscape scene with a house nestled in a rich palette of colors. In the center, really the core of the design, was a heart. The rest of the picture flowed from the heart.

I got started, excited to see progress. The heart was the first thing to sew. I worked on it diligently. I couldn’t wait for the design to start taking shape. I finally finished the heart, and noticed that it was just a little bit off center. I stared at it for a few minutes, trying to decide what to do. Tear it out and start over or just keep going? I knew it wasn’t right, but impatience and time pressure won out. I decided to keep going. I figured no one was going to notice once the whole thing was put together.

Wrong.

The entire pattern revolved around the heart. Everything was measured and sewn from the placement of the heart. I didn’t realize it until I got to the edges. The entire picture was skewed. The small heart mistake at the center threw the entire design off, its crookedness magnified in each piece as it moved outward. I should have read Ecclesiastes 3:7a – “…a time to tear, and a time to sew;”

My Jesus Resolution today is to remember the lesson of the crooked heart. Sometimes I don’t want to take the time or make the effort to tear the little things out of my heart that make it crooked. They seem like such little things in the moment. I would rather sew vibrant colors, create joy, and see progress. But it doesn’t take much to throw God’s whole design for me off center. Good sewing often requires some good tearing. Taking the time to tear can keep my heart from becoming crooked and ruining the picture of Jesus He is creating in me.

My daughter moved last week. She is starting a new job, excited to be beginning a new adventure in a new place. Getting her stuff here was its own sort of adventure. The opportunity for her move sprang up rather quickly. She only had a few days to sort through her belongings, deciding what was coming with her and what she needed to leave behind. She starting sorting, bags and stacks piling up around her. She recycled, donated, and tossed what wouldn’t belong in her new space. She called, utterly amazed at the amount of stuff that would not be coming with her. It is stunning how quickly we accumulate the unnecessary and hold onto the outdated. She finally narrowed it down to the basics, loaded it with the movers, and vowed never to accumulate such an overwhelming amount of stuff again.

Perhaps the words of the wisdom writer speak as much to our hearts as to our bulging closets. “…a time to keep, and a time to cast away;” – Ecclesiastes 3:6b

Here I believe that God encourages us to take a little time every day to go through our hearts, tossing the junk, removing the unhealthy, and cherishing the treasures. Too much heart junk makes transformation difficult. A few moments of quiet helps us see ourselves in the light of His glory, revealing what is important for growth and what needs to be left behind. Grace is the great sorter. If what is in our hearts helps us look like Jesus, it is there because of His grace and should be embraced. If something pulls us away from His image, His grace has the power to pull it out and cast it away.

My Jesus Resolution today is to do a heart inventory. There are many things I need to keep and treasure – evidence of His presence, blessings, faith lessons learned, love shared, and grace received. There are also things that definitely need to go – guilt, worry, bitterness, resentment, pride, and fear. Every day, Jesus gives me the opportunity for a fresh start, a new beginning, and a clean slate.

Have you ever been on a diet? The key to shaping up really falls into two categories. First, you have to incorporate some new habits into your routine. You start walking, looking for new recipes, shopping with a different eye, and following a healthy eating plan. Second, there are unhealthy behaviors that need to go. No more junk food, couch sitting, or excuse-making. Tackling both sides of the equation gives you the best opportunity for transformation.

What is true for our bodies is true for our souls. If we want to look like Jesus, we need to work in this same rhythm and balance – fill and empty, add and release, or, as the wisdom writer teaches us, “…a time to seek, and a time to lose:” (Ecclesiastes 3:6a)

Here is a list of ten things that you will lose when you seek after God:

Seek grace – Lose guilt

Seek peace – Lose fear

Seek joy – Lose discontentment

Seek righteousness – Lose shame

Seek purpose – Lose hopelessness

Seek zeal – Lose apathy

Seek His glory – Lose pride

Seek love – Lose loneliness

Seek surrender – Lose stubbornness

Seek quietness – Lose worry

My Jesus Resolution today is to seek and lose. Too often, I am fixated on what I need to lose, but don’t realize that when I seek Him, the losing will come easier. Keeping my heart focused on imitating Jesus will gradually train my soul to reflect His image and live under His reign. Seeking His face challenges me to lose the obstacles that stand in the way of His glory, and fills me with the attributes and habits that give me the best opportunity for transformation.

***Today we are taking a minute away from our thoughts about time to focus on the necessity of a pure heart. Temptations continue to pound our souls, like the surf unrelentingly hitting the sand. This blog, which first appeared in July, 2014, speaks my prayer that we will choose to stand up and be counted as people of holiness.*** 

Our world loves to dabble in grays. White and black are either considered old-fashioned or self-righteous. In our society, truth is whatever makes you feel good. Evil is anything that doesn’t meet the current standard of political correctness. Our culture swims in shades of gray. Gray represents compromise, inclusion, and comfort. The extremes of good and evil are too narrow for a modern mind.

As Christians, we struggle with gray, even as God calls us to a life of truth, holiness, and purity. Gray allows me some wiggle room. It invites me to hold on to personal preferences and pleasures. It tells me that one small concession isn’t going to hurt anyone. Gray tells me that I deserve it. It questions why anyone else should have a say in what I read, or watch, or do. It entices me to take control and choose my own path.

Gray, in all of its shades, is a lie.

Gray wraps pornography up in a book cover, selling it as a guilty pleasure. Gray parades immorality in front of us, telling us love has many facets and shades. Gray packages manipulation, selfishness, and degradation in a movie trailer, expecting that we will hand over ten dollars apiece to watch lust come alive on a screen. Gray is arrogant. Gray is a bully. It is time to tell gray “no.”

My Jesus Resolution today is to live in one shade of purity. I don’t need many shades of gray. I need Jesus. He is the only one who can rescue me from the shame, guilt, and regret that gray brings to my soul. Today I am going to commit to telling gray “no.” No matter how much marketing, how much hype, how much pressure, or how much enticement gray throws out, it is time to stand up to gray and reveal His light. The shadow of the cross is the only shade my soul needs.

As God continues to teach us about how to use this gift of time, He now draws our attention to what we choose to hold close to our hearts. The wisdom writer writes in Ecclesiastes 5b, “…a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;”  What we choose to embrace says a lot about who we are. Here God reminds us that He gives us time in order to be deliberate about what we pull close to our hearts, and the things we need to release in order to embrace the life God has in store for us.

Five things to embrace today:

1. Something that brings you deep joy
2. A new friend
3. Being still
4. A fresh appreciation of grace
5. A chance to laugh

Five things to release today:

1. Nagging guilt
2. More busyness
3. The negative voice in your head
4. That thing that is holding you back
5. Regret

My Jesus Resolution today is to think hard about what I hold onto. I tend to hold onto the negative and let the sweet, simple, sacred moments slip through my fingers. Today I want to have my eyes open to the opportunity to release the things that weigh down my soul and embrace beauty and blessings. In the end, what I embrace and what I release will help me see how God is working all around me and in me.

She is almost two years old. Blonde curls hug her face while she shyly peeks around her mother’s legs. It has taken patience and practice, but she now joins the other preschoolers in their special song time. She stands proudly in her spot, and her whole little body sings. It is fun to watch her engage with the wise man or let her heart sing the truth that Jesus Loves Me. She doesn’t just open her mouth. When she sings, she uses every part of her.

Then the songs end, and it is time to sit down. Grins and smiles quickly turn into protests and tears. She loves to sing. She firmly tells everyone who will listen that she wants “more song.”  Little wails of disapproval rise up as she moves back to her seat.

“…a time to mourn, and a time to dance;” – Ecclesiastes 3:4a

Little children move between despair and delight with ease. One moment finds them in tears, certain that all is lost. A few minutes later, you can hear squeals of glee floating across the air. One of the neat things about children is that whether they are in the midst of tears or laughter, they want to share the moment with a parent. When they are upset, a pair of open arms is the best place to be. When joy breaks over the moment, they run to tell a loving parent.

This is the lesson that I want to learn from my little friend. When she is singing with her whole body and spirit, she does so from the embrace of a parent. When she despairs that there are no more songs, she clings to the arms of her parent. Whether today is a time of joy or a moment of deep sorrow, the best place for me to stand is in the arms of my Father.

My Jesus Resolution today is to settle into my Father’s embrace. There will be times of mourning. Perhaps over sin, over injustice, over prejudice, or over loss. In these moments, I want to seek out the comfort, peace, and grace only found in His strong arms. There will also be times of dancing. Times to celebrate, laugh, enjoy, appreciate, and sing. At these times, I want to pause in His presence, knowing I am experiencing His goodness and the opportunity to praise Him with everything I am.

There is nothing quite like a good cry. You know what I mean. Sometimes the only thing that helps is letting the tears flow. A good cry eases the tightness that grabs hold of our hearts and the squeeze that stress and worry wrap around our souls. Tears don’t usually change our circumstances, but having a chance to release those emotions clears our perspective, allowing us to take a deep breath and gather up the courage to take the next step. Contrary to what the world often tells us, a good cry, especially with a friend, is an act of grace.

Here’s my reality. I do my share of crying. Things get overwhelming or my heart gets weary, and I can go through the tissues with the best of them. The truth is that it is laughter that I struggle with. As God teaches us about how to use His gift of time, He reminds us that there is “…a time to weep, and a time to laugh;” (Ecclesiastes 3:4a). I don’t know about you, but laughter gets lost in my days. Between the busy, the hurry, the deadlines, and just the grind of the ordinary, I go through too many days without taking the time to relax and laugh. Studies show that children laugh about 300 times a day. Adults only laugh 15-20 times a day. What did Jesus say? “Unless you become like a little child…”

My Jesus Resolution today is to have a good cry and a good laugh. God gives us time for both. I’m going to cry when I need to, knowing that He bottles my tears and understands my pain. I am also going to laugh…hard. We know that our society tells us to take things seriously, get down to business, and work harder so that we will be successful. Perhaps, however, we would be better served if we laughed longer, smiled more, chuckled louder, and giggled faster. Our souls might be more luminous if we took the time to laugh every day.