Of Ducks, Minks, and Salvation

I went to Canada with a group of friends not long ago. The following is one of the journal entries I made during that time.

“Today is our last full day in Canada!

Even though it was wet and rainy, it was still great… This morning started like a bullet from a gun: when we were all on the porch this morning, we seven saw a mother duck and a few ducklings being irritated by a mink. Needless to say, we freaked out, concerned that we were about to witness a duck holocaust…

But then a boat came up. We started screaming asking the man to save the ducks. He did his best, but his boat was too large to maneuver properly. It was holding the mink off for a moment, but it wasn’t a solution to the problem. One of us seven goes running out the back door. No one pays much attention, too fixed on what was happening and too intent to keep yelling for the mink to go away.

The mother duck was clearly getting tired, and just when all seems to be lost - suddenly! – the one who went running out the porch comes flying around the island, a savior on a wave runner. She separates the mink from the ducks, keeping them apart until no harm can come to either the mother or babies. Needless to say, we six girls were cheering louder than was necessary at eight am on a rainy morning…

And it made me think of you, God. Of how the Law [in my case, the inefficient boat] only shows how bad off we are, how impossible it is to obtain salvation. And of how real salvation and freedom came in the most unlikely form of Jesus. The way Your obedience cut off the accuser from destroying me and instead let me escape the punishment for my sins. It made me see the Law is good and You gave it to us – but doesn’t save because we are sinners by nature. And of course, that You came to fulfill the Law and bring us life.

Just like in nature, the mink should have gotten a nice duck breakfast – and in justice, I should be damned. But out of love and grace, the entire order of nature was flipped upside-down. Salvation for the undeserving. Hope on a wave runner; salvation on a cross.

Lord, You are good, and You do good.”

Maybe you had to be there to get the whole picture, and maybe it was just a funny story I can laugh about later – but I can tell you that in that moment, I saw that Christ IS good, and He DOES good, even to the most undeserving like me.

By grace undeserved,
Casey

Dominoes & Christ

In my continued exploration of the Cuban culture that makes up most of my church family, I’ve discovered something new: their passion for Dominoes. They can spend hours playing!

We were at the beach yesterday afternoon, and I watched four people play. I observed as dotted tiles first connected to form lines, then spread outward to cover the table. Each team battled for dominance as points were calculated. And as they played, two friends explained the strategy behind each move.


It turns out that the game isn’t based on whim or preference, or even about which tile is the most convenient to use. Instead, they made it clear that they not only analyzed the board in regards to their own potential plays, but they had to keep an eye on their partner’s plays (and passes), and simultaneously remember which numbers were the opposing team’s strengths and weaknesses. All of it was done without even the appearance of concentration - they were talking throughout the whole game! (While this conversation did take place in Spanish, I’m going to go out on a limb and say at some point, I’m pretty darn sure there was trash talking...)


The more I saw, the more tactics and strategy I found. From the first move to the final clack of the last tile thrown down, strategy was imperative. But a few minutes later, another friend (a fellow non-Cuban like myself) walked up to us, and made a comment that she saw no real strategy behind the game – she saw pieces being randomly selected, placed down wherever and whenever they fit. No skill needed, just a game of chance...


My friend and I were watching the same game – but our outlooks could not have been more different. Where I saw intricacy, she saw simplicity; where I saw expert choreography in strategic planning, she saw guesswork and chance colliding.

One game – two very different outlooks.


As my friend walked away from the game, I started to think… Which of these outlooks do I take when viewing God?


Do I view life as a rainbow of chaos, with God simply dropping the Domino tiles of my life wherever they fall? Is He simply letting the pieces land where they will, leaving it to chance if everything works out in the end? Or, do I see Him behind everything that happens in life – in both the good and the bad, the great and the devastating? Do I see His plans and choreography in every snapshot of my life?

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.” (Romans 8:28 – 30)


“May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.” (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24)

God isn’t just random. Each step is a carefully wrought – He chooses, calls, justifies… each moment planned with His wisdom and love for me at the front of His mind. He sanctifies, making me more like Him every day.


I love it, because it means that He is involved in every aspect of my life. There is a reassurance in that, because it means every moment is a step to becoming the righteous daughter God has already said I am.(1 Peter 2:9-10, Ephesians 1:4-6) But at the same time, it's hard, because it means that everything in my life happens because He allows it.


That means He allowed my mom’s brain aneurysm and near death last year - and He is working it for good. That means the events that forced me to start waitressing again is going to be worked out by God for good. Some hard things that are going on in the lives of friends and family will be worked out for good. It’s not whim or preference; it’s not just a game of chance. If all things are working together for the good of the ones who love Christ, He has a Strategy behind every move.


It wasn’t chance that had me working at a BBQ joint a few years back… it wasn’t luck that I managed to find the college that had everything I wanted, but didn’t yet know I needed… it wasn’t a fluke that I started taking an ASL class years ago… it wasn’t a twist of fate that Christ finally pierced my soul with His call and I became His. His hand lead to each pivotal moment that’s helped shape me into who I am. Expert choreography and intricacy, played out by the One who holds all the pieces in life is leading me to who I will someday be.


So as the game ended and I walked to the ocean to play in the waves, I realized that God’s strategy and planning didn’t just bring me to the current stage in my life: it brought me to the very beach that I stood on, to the very spot I watched Dominoes being played.


All things working together for good.


In Him,
Casey

“Casey do you ever take off those rose-colored glasses?”
- A friend of mine asked me that question last week. It had been after I’d jokingly told her that I’d developed magical powers, because it seems like I can control what songs are played on the radio.

“Did you EVER fit in as a kid??”
- That question came courtesy of an un-courteous coworker, upon discovering I preferred reading to watching television, even as a child.

“It’s like you go out of your way to be intentionally weird.”
- My sibling, regarding my dislike of large social situations and tendency to ignore social expectations.

“You look crazy when you talk to yourself in ASL.”
- My other sibling, commenting on how I use sign language as a mnemonic device to study.

“Why can’t you just be normal?”
- ... My own thoughts this time…

-*-*-

“I have loved you with an everlasting love.” [Jeremiah 31:3]
- God’s voice, reminding me His love for me is eternal.

“As my Father has loved me, so have I loved you.” [John 15:9]
- God’s voice, reminding me I’m accepted just as I am.

“I am a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.”
- God’s voice again, reminding me that His faithfulness covers my quirks, oddities and errors.

“I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine…” [Song of Solomon 6:3]
- This time, it’s my own voice. Remembering that God created me, that I was bought with a price, that there’s no condemnation for those in Christ, that I’m a daughter of God. It’s my own voice, choosing to remember God’s words, choosing to remember His promises, choosing to remember His voice.

In the end, His voice is the only one that really matters.

World Changers

“The world needs dreamers, and the world needs doers. But above all, the world needs dreamers who do.” – Sarah Ban Breathnach

I love that quote because it’s about people who change their world.
I hang out with a group of “world changers”. It sounds cliché, but I am absolutely, one hundred percent serious.

These people, my friends, have a vision to change the world. Not “changing the world” in that disconnected, crazy way that really doesn’t have any impact. These people have dreams that involve seeing a radical change in their own lives. A radical change in their families. A radical change in the city where we live. A radical change in our state, country, continent, and the rest of the world.

But they don’t just dream. They do. They make friends with people who believe and behave differently. They talk to the baristas at Starbucks and have conversations with servers when we’re out to eat. They look for ways to serve each other. There’s no competition to be the best, no desire to “one up” each other. When we’re together, there’s just laughter, and teasing, and Cuban coffee, and attempts to teach me Spanish, and late-night trips to Denny’s.

They’re dreamers who do, and doers who dream and above all else, they’re REAL.

They are flawed too – at the girl’s small group on Tuesdays evenings I attend, I hear stories of broken families, of broken lives, of broken hearts. The word “broken” comes up a lot, actually. They’re not perfect, and they don’t act like a pseudo-Jesus with the holier-than-thou attitude. They admit they don’t have it all worked out. They just genuinely try to live like Jesus modeled.

I want to be like that. Their passion and zeal for Christ and radical change to our way of self-centered thinking has the potential to be infectious.

I want that. It has a cost of course: it means being uncomfortable, putting myself out there, and chucking my pride out the window. It means diving deeper with God, and letting Him be the one who really makes the difference.

Though Christ, I choose to become a world changer – a visionary that both dreams and acts.

Changing from the inside out,
Casey