I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses.  Choose life so that you and your descendants may live.          
                                                  Deuteronomy 30:19
      We’re not always comfortable with the idea of choice.  Choice equates to responsibility—the responsibility for creating our own lives, for better or worse.  Most of us pretty much get the lives we choose, the lives we fashion.  Abraham Lincoln said, “Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.”  That’s a hard thing to face if we’re not happy with ourselves.  It’s so much easier to blame circumstances or other people for whatever is wrong in our lives.  If we think of ourselves as victims, we have someone or something to blame; we don’t have to be responsible for our lives.  But the truth is inescapable. 
​      We have choices to make at every stage and every age in life, and those choices will guide the direction and outcome of our lives.  Yes, some people have childhoods that are nightmares, and the effects of that trauma must be faced.  Others have spouses who are unloving or abusive; bosses who are managerial monsters.  Many people have truly difficult … even heart-breaking … situations in life.  But wise counselors have always told us that it isn’t what happens to us that matters most; it’s what we do with what happens to us; how we react and how we make our choices.  The responsibility of making good, healthy, positive choices is ours, no one else’s.  It is a truth to which God holds us at any age. 

​©Carol Dean Henn 

If only you had paid attention to my commands, your peace would have been like a river, your
well-being like the waves of the sea.                                             Isaiah 48:18
 
“If only …”  Life can be filled with ‘if only’ moments.  Usually, once we’ve learned from our mistakes or
follies, regrets are pointless.  They only sap our strength and deepen our remorse.  But today’s verse is an instruction, from God to the Israelites-- and to us.  He reminds us that obedience to his commandments is not a meaningless exercise; it isn’t a superficial bow to his authority. 
​By giving us the commandments as guidelines for living, he pointed the way to a life of peace, abundance, and well-being.  If we have some regrets … if we have had our share of ‘if only’ moments … let’s leave those behind and move on to a new life, lived fully and joyfully in God’s will.  If we need to do that, today is a good day to begin.

©Carol Dean Henn, 2018

All people are grass, their constancy is like the flower of the field.  The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand forever.                                                                                                        Isaiah 40:6-8
      The inevitability of death is a very difficult thing for most people to face, especially when we’re young. 
And it is difficult to face the fact that those we love also have a limited time in this earthly life.  Our aversion to the reality of death is natural.  Isaiah uses examples from nature – grasses and flowers in a field – to remind us that all living things have their seasons and lifespans. 
​      But God’s love and presence, his word and his promises, are eternal, and they do not only apply to us in this life, but also in the life to come.  Life itself, in God’s grace and goodness, does not end.  It may change form and setting and substance, but we have his word that it does not end.  It is a promise for all the seasons of our lives.

©Carol Dean Henn, 2018

Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.      
                                                                                                                       Proverbs 16:18
      Many years ago, on a business trip to Nevada, I was happily tooling along a highway south of Reno and Carson City, in a red convertible rental car.  I was heading to a place called Gardnerville, and there was nothing around me except blue sky, boulders, dust, and sagebrush … until I saw flashing red lights in my rearview mirror.  I knew I was within the speed limit – I prided myself on being a good driver – so I assumed the police car was heading somewhere else.  After a few more miles, I decided to pull over and just let himpass me.  When the police car pulled over behind me, my heart flew into my throat.  I felt sick.  The trooper who came over to my car said, in amused disbelief, “Well … did we finally decide to stop?!?”  “But I didn’t think you were following me,” I gasped.  “I’ve been obeying all the rules and driving within the speed limit.”  “Not back in Minden you weren’t,” he replied.  Turns out that a small town – all five blocks of it – that I’d driven through, has a lower speed limit than the roads leading into and out of it.  I didn’t know that. 
     Blessedly, the trooper understood that I was a visitor to the area and had never driven through Minden before.  He also saw how surprised and upset I was.  He gave me a warning, and told me to watch out for speed limit changes in the small towns dotting the desert.  I was so relieved that I wanted to hug him.  So-- I had done something wrong after all.  I wasn’t as blameless as I thought.  It’s a lesson I still remember.  “Pride goeth … before a fall.”

©Carol Dean Henn, 2018

Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.                                                                          Matthew 6:10
    We humans like the feeling of being in control.  Some even proudly describe themselves as ‘control freaks.’  But many Bible passages tell us to let go, to relinquish that desire to control.  Wait—isn’t control a good thing?  Aren’t we supposed to control our tongues and our tempers, our finances and our behavior?  Well, perhaps ‘manage’ would be a better word.  ‘Control’ too often means controlling others—other people and other nations.  Again and again, world powers have carved up weaker countries and territories in order to control their natural resources and their people.  Legislators try to control how much health care we can get, whom we can love and marry, and what we can do to our bodies.
​    Individuals try to control others through guilt (“If you move away from home, I just know my heart will give out”), threats (“You’ll do what I tell you to do or you’re fired”) or money (“If you marry that woman, you’re out of my will!”)  Managing our lives is fine.  Control is best left to God.  “Thy will be done, Lord.  Keep me from the temptation to control others, and from the illusion thatmy will is wiser than yours.”

©Carol Dean Henn, 2018

Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread
to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to the skillful; but time and chance happen to
them all.                        Ecclesiastes 9:11
 
    Sports – participating or watching – can teach us many things.  Some of those things actually parallel
Biblical lessons.  The need for discipline and commitment is one such lesson, as is the need for teamwork
and the desire for success.  Other lessons are much more subtle, such as the lesson to ‘savor the moment.’ 
Almost every athlete who has made it to the Super Bowl, the Olympics, or the final round of the Master’s
Tournament realizes ‘I may never get to this point again.’  Seize the day.  Savor the moment.  Be grateful
for what is. 
    Another lesson is the importance of grace under pressure, especially the pressure of defeat. 
Players who throw their helmets to the ground, or who refuse to shake hands with the victors, brand themselves as losers in ways that have nothing to do with the final score.  And when we see an exhausted runner shuffling toward the finish line, in the darkening dusk, after all the faster runners have gone home, we realize that victory takes many forms, and ultimately, only we can say whether we’ve won or not.

©Carol Dean Henn, 2018

Each helps the other, saying to one another, “Take courage.”            Isaiah 41:16
 
     My mother took her first airplane flight at age 49.  She was terrified.  If there was any way she could
have backed out, she would have.  But once we were in the clouds, a great change happened.  She loved it!  Flying became one of her most favorite things.  She would have taken a ‘flight to nowhere,’ just to be in the air.  She loved any trip that involved plane flights.  Although she would never have thought of herself as adventurous, at age 70, Mom climbed the stairs to the top of the Statue of Liberty, her favorite landmark, and looked out from the windows in the statue’s crown.  At 75, she climbed to the rim of Mt. Haleakala, the volcano on Maui.  When she was 80, she walked steep mountain trails in Colorado.  At 85, she accompanied me on weekly trips to Maryland to help care for a family member there.  By age 90, after being diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis, her challenge was to walk from room to room at home, and she tackled that test with determination as well. 
    Courage is an elusive quality.  Those who have it seldom see it in themselves, and while courage usually surfaces under stress, it is also related to joy—the willingness to find joy in living.  “Help me to find my courage, Lord – it’s there, I know -- that I might also find peace … and joy!”

©Carol Dean Henn, 2018