Casandra Martin

She stood on the hillside overlooking the cold water below. The teens were taking turns jumping off the embankment into the deep waters of the river. Screams of delight and shouts of encouragement filled the air.

Having swum across the river, climbed up the tree roots, and hiked the trail to the top, she now stood at the edge. What had looked like so much fun from the bottom now had a different feel.

She stood frozen for a minute contemplating her options. Possibilities meandered their way through her mind like the river water far below. Fear pulsed through her veins. For just a moment, her world was reduced to one simple question – jump or not jump?

She jumped.

Arms in the air, a thrilled scream of terror echoed in the trees. She plunged below the surface and came up with a grin. She then scrambled to do it again.

Later, she swam back over to where the less courageous were sitting. One lady asked her how she did it. She answered, “I said, ‘One, two, three, prayed to God, and jumped.” The woman sitting in the shallows shook her head in disbelief. “No really. That is what I did. One, two, three, pray.” In her words, I heard a formula for facing my fears.

My Jesus Resolution today is to jump. There is a fear that is holding me back. It keeps me from being and having all that God wants for me. It is a fear of the unknown, of looking foolish, of being transparent, of being rejected, of being accepted, of messing it up, or getting it right. Today I am going to take a leap of faith. I am going to trust God and jump – into His arms. I am going to take a deep breath, ready my heart, and shout – one, two, three, pray, and then soar.

The sign made me smile, and set me to thinking. The front of a local tire company asked passersby the question of the day. “Attitudes are contagious. Is yours worth catching?”

The sign is right. Attitudes are contagious. Being around someone who is grumpy makes me grumpy too. Laughter is infectious. Worry likes to find company. Joy flies best when it can spread its wings. Anger tends to crawl through the cracks, while a sunny disposition lights up the whole room.

The Bible bears witness to this particular truth. The fear of the ten spies spread through the camp like wildfire. David’s confidence in God gave Israel courage to face the giant. Hezekiah’s dependence, Joshua’s courage, Elijah’s boldness, and Daniel’s integrity all “infected” those around them and pointed them to God.

Attitudes are the focus that we bring into a moment. They have the ability to point us in the right direction or spin us around until we have lost our bearings. Attitudes won’t change our circumstances, but they are powerful tools that allow us to see God’s hand, live in His purpose, and lean on His love.

My Jesus Resolution is to examine my attitude. Is it worth catching? Would seeing my eyes, hearing my words, and listening to my tone of voice in another cause me to cringe or be thankful? Encouragers are people who are deliberate about sharing their Christ-infused attitudes with others. Today I am going to remember that my attitude is contagious. I want to spread Jesus everywhere I go.

He is six years old, with a head full of curls and dark brown eyes. He brought his paper to the preacher with wide eyes, anxious to see how his masterpiece was going to be received.

Each week the young children in our congregation are challenged to listen to the sermon and draw a picture of the Bible lesson we share. This week, our minister began a new series on growing deep roots. Walking through Jeremiah 17:5-8, we dug deeply into the prophet’s holy horticulture lesson, and committed ourselves to planting everything we are firmly in the person and presence of Jesus.

What picture would you draw? A small plant barely sticking its head out of the ground is the first thing you see when you look at the little boy’s picture. Three-fourths of the page is sky, room to grow, thrive, and flourish in this bright world. It is, however, what is below the surface that causes you to stop and reflect. Below the brown line that serves as the ground, there are a myriad of roots. Each one stretching out to hold the plant in place, giving it the anchor and nourishment it needs to grow. But he didn’t stop there. He named the roots. Each one was identified with someone who is helping him grow to look like Jesus – mom, dad, brother, sister, preacher, friend. It was a humbling, “aha” moment.

The little boy caught the most important lesson of the day. Roots are not intangible threads we throw out and hope they catch. Roots are the people who have a hold of our hearts. The friends that listen, encourage, and open doors into His presence. Family members who show us what it means to look like Jesus day in and day out. Brothers and sisters in Christ who model Him so that we can glimpse who He calls us to be.

My Jesus Resolution today is to name my roots. Who are the people who have helped to anchor me in Christ? I am going to stop and give thanks for each one by name. Who nourishes my relationship with Jesus? Who encourages me to be more like Him? I am going to pause and praise Him for the people He uses as blessings in my life. In what way can I be a root for someone else? Who can I help today take in more of Jesus?

He begged. I resisted. Technology and I are not best friends, but my son, who is spending the summer in another country, pleaded with me to download a program that would allow us to video chat. Email is good. Talking on the phone works well, but video calling would allow him to see our faces.

I wasn’t convinced, but yesterday we had our first video chat. It was wonderful. There is so much more that you can capture in a conversation when you can watch someone’s eyes, witness their smile, and match their voice with their expression. He was right. It was worth it.

His desire to share this face-to-face time made me hungry for more. And it offered me a mirror for my soul. Worship, Bible study, and prayer are excellent connection points with Jesus. They allow us to interact with His Spirit, listen to His voice, and open our hearts to His purpose. But they are supposed to make us hungry for more. Hungry to be in His presence and see His face.

When John describes heaven, he describes a place of indescribable splendor, unimaginable riches, and sublime perfection. Heaven’s intense beauty, however, is overshadowed by one singular, amazing reality – we will get to see His face.

“Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.” – I John 3:2

My Jesus Resolution today is to be like my son. I want to have a deeper longing for home. I want to develop a hunger that can only be satisfied by seeing His face. We are God’s children and seeing His face should be my most aching desire. I can catch glimpses in His Word, the people who shine with His likeness, and in worship and prayer, but I don’t want to settle for a glimpse. I want to lock my focus on the cross until I can look into His eyes.

Tomorrow is Flag Day. On June 14, 1777, the Second Continental Congress adopted the flag made by Betsy Ross as the official flag of the United States of America. On that day, the flag only had thirteen stars and the country was a new dream. Today, we fly a flag with fifty stars and stand in a nation whose freedom shines as a light around the world. Flag Day is a day to celebrate the flag and all that it represents as a symbol of our nation and its ideals.

While as Americans we honor the flag that defines our nation, God’s people can celebrate the banner that marks us as citizens of the kingdom of heaven. The banner is not a piece of cloth, an ensign, or a particular set of colors. The banner that marks the presence of the kingdom of God is God Himself. In Exodus 17:15, Moses tells the people that “The LORD is My Banner.” He is the standard of our lives, our victory in battle, and the focus of our hearts.

The Song of Solomon 2:4 gives a picture of what our banner looks like. “And his banner over me was love.” The multi-faceted beauty of God’s love is the banner that flies over our hearts. It marks His presence, announces His claim over our souls, and declares the sovereignty of His rule in our lives.

My Jesus Resolution today is to stand proudly under my flag. I want the world to know where I belong. I want to honor the presence of God in my life. I want to display the fullness of God’s love in the way I walk in my day. Like other flags, the banner that flies over my life defines where I live, how I live, and the privileges and responsibilities of citizenship. Unlike other flags, our banner is no mere symbol. God Himself is my banner, and that is something to celebrate.

When you think of a throne, what comes to mind? Do you imagine sparkling jewels, glittering gold, and regal royalty? Thrones are places of stability, sovereignty, and strength. They are built to highlight the majesty of the king, and to let the world know that here sits a ruler worthy of our attention and loyalty.

Psalm 22:3 paints a dramatic picture of a throne. “Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.” Close your eyes and capture the importance of these words. Our praise creates a throne for the Holy One. Our worship builds a structure in which He chooses to dwell. He inhabits the praises of His people, lives within its adoration, and makes His home in the hearts that call on His name.

I will be honest. This verse caused me to stop and take a hard look at myself. If God is enthroned on my praises, what kind of throne is it? Is it one rich with gratitude, framed with surrender, strong in joy, and infused with humble wonder? Have I offered God a throne worthy of His majesty or something thrown together with leftovers? How many times have I offered Him songs sung by rote, prayers lifted without focus, and scripture heard without surrender? Too many times, I am ashamed to say.

My Jesus Resolution today is to build a throne. God doesn’t need my praises to be King. I need to praise Him, build a throne for His majesty, so that He can reign over every part of my life. The more I invest in the praises I offer Him, the more access I give Him to my heart, the more I allow Him to establish His rule in my character, and the more I open myself up to His transformation. The way I worship declares to the world the place the Savior holds in my life.

It echoed as a quiet whisper in the middle of the night. An email with one sentence – where did you see God?

The ability to see God moving in our days, in our activities, in our hearts, and in our circumstances is one of the essential keys to learning to be like Jesus. Jesus looked at fields full of crops and saw the Father. He noticed sheep lying in a pasture and saw God. He observed seeds growing, watched children playing, ate His meals, slept in a boat, caught fish, and with every step, every breath, saw His Father at work. Everywhere He looked, He saw a world permeated with the presence of the Loving One. He calls us to learn how to see with His eyes.

Some days it is hard. The question whispered in the dark didn’t flow from doubt or disbelief. Sometimes our vantage point makes it difficult to see Him.  We need others to help us trace His hand, feel His touch, and spotlight His movement.

But here is the catch – it takes vulnerability to ask. It means that we have to be willing to admit that we can’t see. There is transparency required in learning how to open our eyes. We have to risk exposing our weakness in order to see His glory.

John the Baptist understood. Imprisoned by Herod, John sent messengers to Jesus. Are you the One or should we look for another? I am having trouble seeing, he admits. Where is God? Do you see Him?

My Jesus Resolution is to be like John. When it is hard to see, I am going to ask for help. I love Jesus’ answer. “Go and tell John what you hear and see.” (Matthew 11:4) John risked asking, and Jesus sent him people with stories – stories of the lame walking, the blind seeing, the deaf hearing, and the dead rediscovering life. John also reminds me not to keep my God stories to myself. Someone out there may be asking – Do you see Him? Your story may be God’s answer.

Today is the anniversary of D-Day. D-Day marks the day in which 160,000 allied troops landed in Normandy, France on a mission to overthrow Hitler’s stranglehold on Europe. Under the command of General Dwight D. Eisenhower, troops from the United States, Canada, and England initiated an assault on German troops on five beachheads. This day marked the beginning of the end of World War II.

D-Day is the day in which the allied resolve to answer the evil of Nazi Germany overflowed into action. Men died, blood was shed, and the light of freedom began to glimmer in war-torn Europe. D-Day is often referred to as Decision Day. It is in that picture that we see our path.

We all need a D-Day. Decision Days turn our resolutions into reality. They mark the moment in which our good intentions take concrete first steps. We start moving in the right direction, making the right decisions, and being deliberate about transformation.

On June 6, 1944, the battle wasn’t over, but victory found its first voice. D-Day doesn’t mean Done Day. It is Decision Day. But Decision Day is a necessary first step to being done. If we don’t start, we can’t finish. If we don’t begin, nothing will change. The victories we celebrate later find their roots in our D-Days.

Eisenhower said, “The history of free men is never really written by chance but by choice — their choice.”

My Jesus Resolution today is to make today D-Day. I am going to make the decision and take the first steps into God’s purpose for my life. I want to be willing to sacrifice to move ahead. I am going to step onto the beachhead and confront the enemy. I am going to stand by Jesus’ side as He wages war on the sin that holds me in a stranglehold. I am going to celebrate the truth that victory begins with my choice to surrender to the lordship of Jesus Christ.

He was walking through the streets, taking in all the wonders that come with settling into a new place. Our oldest son is being blessed with the opportunity to spend some time this summer in another country. He has already seen one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, served soup to refugees living in makeshift tents, wept with a mother fearful that her daughter had been captured by human traffickers, and stood humbled as a new Christian from Iran explained how he will be killed when he goes home, but is filled with joy because he has Jesus. Today it was a homeless child who opened his eyes and shifted his perspective. A pickpocket to be exact.

He called us very early in the morning to tell us that his wallet had been stolen. Everything was gone – ID, money, bank cards. He had taken the precautions, but still got taken by a thief. It wasn’t the missing stuff that was breaking his heart. Thinking back through the moments around when his wallet went missing, he remembered a small group of homeless children swarming around his group. Malnourished bodies, filthy clothes, the stamp of poverty and hopelessness etched deeply on their little faces. “I would have given them the money,” he said. “All they had to do was ask.”

That is my son. He has a bottomless heart. I wish I was more like him. Instead, I see myself in the pickpocket. How many times do I think that I have to steal blessings, grab my own joy, stuff myself with stuff, and run around frantically to fill an emptiness that scares me because it reveals my broken desperation? Our world teaches us to seize, grasp, snatch, and steal because if we don’t take care of ourselves, no one else will.

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.” – Matthew 7:7-8

My Jesus Resolution today is to ask. I am going to slow down, mute the world’s whispers, and turn my face to God. He is full of compassion, overflowing with mercy, and rich in love. Too often I try to solve my own problems, answer my own questions, and fill my own emptiness. Today I am going to ask, waiting for the richness God longs to pour into the deep crevices of my soul. I am going to seek His purpose rather than trying to live out my own agenda. I am going to knock, anticipating the moment today when I will see Him reach into His pocket and fill me Himself.

She handed me a piece of paper, and began telling me a story about her mother. Tears filled her eyes as she remembered the beautiful woman who continues to touch her even today. With a smile, she told me about receiving her mother’s Bible after her death. A special treasure and reminder of the faith she had so actively seen displayed in her mother’s life.

She choked up a bit as she pointed to the piece of paper. One day, many months after her mother’s passing, she was looking through the Bible and a small orange slip of paper fell out from between the pages. She had never seen it before. Her heart broke as she read the words –

GOD IS NOWHERE

She couldn’t imagine what had led her mother to write these words and tuck them into her Bible. She stared at the paper, and in a moment of understanding, the meaning of her mother’s words became clear.

There are two ways to read these words – God is nowhere, or God is now here. It is all a matter of focus, of what we choose to see, of how we let God guide our eyes. That little orange sheet of paper was a reminder that our perspective makes all the difference.

My Jesus Resolution today is walk with open eyes. GOD IS NOW HERE! He is waiting for me to notice. Longing for me to see. Too many times, I go through my days with the blinders of busyness on and miss Him. I get frustrated, worried, or distracted and fail to see what should be obvious and plain to a heart that is seeking His face. Perspective is a product of priorities and practice. Today I am going to let His presence fill my vision, and live with the reminder that everyday my perspective needs to be fine-tuned by His grace.