If plants could talk, this is the one I’d listen to. It thrives where other plants have died.  No matter where I put it, it acts like this is the best seat in the house. Whether near a window or not, whether a little water or a lot, it flourishes.  I’ve got five staghorn ferns, and every one is thriving.

I have more plants inside and out than I can count, but this is the one I respect most. Without words, without drama, it teaches me what accepting and adapting in any situation looks like, and it does it gracefully, day-in and day-out.

Unlike my admirable staghorn, I spent a lot of years wondering where my place was and if I was doing the right thing, the best thing. Maybe there were better friends somewhere else—or a better church. Was I doing what I wanted, where I wanted?

After a hard patch, I realized that the right place and the best life weren’t out there somewhere else waiting for me.  It was right in front of me where I already was—changing diapers, wrangling toddlers, watching soccer practice, walking through hard stuff. 

There’s no better life for me than the one I’m already living. This family, these friends, this church, this home, this community—these are the people and places and issues God’s given me to live with, not the ones I’ll never know online or across the ocean.

Like my trusty staghorns, I’ve got to accept where I am and dig in. These passages tell more about how.

Numbers 33-34

They’ve finally arrived. Israel is camped just across the river from Jericho, the gateway into the land God’s promised them. They’ve been wandering in the wilderness forty years, waiting for the older generation to die off, because they refused to enter it the first time ‘round. God had said it was their’s and that he’d be with them to take it over, but they were terrified of its inhabitants and didn’t trust him, Nu 13-14, 33:50.

Now their children are grown and are just outside it. Moses gives a quick rundown of where they’ve camped since leaving Egypt, and then God tells him who’s to help divide up this land for his people. He doesn’t just say go get some guys to help out, he tells Moses which guys—by name. He doesn’t just say go in and take it over, he says how—by driving out the natives and smashing their idols and making themselves at home, because “I’ve given it to you. It’s yours.” This is all the permission they need, Nu 33:1-53, 34:16-29 MSG.

God’s in charge of all aspects of this land distribution. He gives them the boundaries of it, specifically naming seas and passes, cities, brooks, and mountains. He says to divide it by lot, meaning they divide it by how God decides it, since by lot meant basically drawing straws. Who gets what matters, and he’s involved in every detail, including helping them fight to take it over, Nu 34:1-15.

God gives us a Promised Land, too. When we turn to him in faith, we get to visit anytime we like by communing with him through his word and prayer and in worship and fellowship with other believers. Our new lives are filled by his Spirit and our real home is with him, our own “Promised Land” where he lives, Ps 62:1-2, 5-8; 63:1-8; 64:2-8, Ac 4:31, Ep 5:18, Re 22:14.

But we also have promises for this new life we’re living on earth now—promises for our day-to-day, walking around life. Promises of joy and love, rest and peace, blessings beyond belief, a life where he’s involved with every detail, just as he was for ancient Israel. Are we living a Promised Land life here and now? And if not, why aren’t we? De 28, Mal 3:10, Ps 31:19-22, Mt 11:28, Ga 5:22-23, 1 Co 2:9.

Maybe we don’t believe what God says anymore than the Israelites did. Or we don’t know what he promises, because our Bibles sit unread. Maybe we don’t think Jesus’ claim of abundant living applies today, and maybe we think it’s not the kind of abundance we’d like, anyway, Ha 2:4 MSG, Jn 10:10 ESV, Ep 3:20-21.

Maybe we’re on guard so we’re not let down, in case abundant living doesn’t pan out. Maybe we’re embarrassed that we fell for faith once, but we’re more realistic now. So we content ourselves with distractions and addictions, chasing new fads and fictions, hoping to find what we’re longing for.

Leaning in to the life we want with God has to be fought for and won, just like it had to be fought for and won by the Israelites. Jesus died to make this new life available now, but we must do our part to possess that life with God’s help, just like God’s people had to do 3500 years ago, Nu 33:5-53, De 8, Ro 6:5-14.

Paul said we have to strive to take hold of it. We’re laborers who work out our salvation with fear and trembling, trusting that God is doing his part to give us the will and the want-to. We’re athletes who go into strict training to win the prize. We’re fortune hunters, digging for treasure. We’re soldiers who put on God’s armor to fight the enemy, including the enemy inside us. We’re children of God, who keep looking to our Father because he promises to answer when we call, Ps 91:15, Mt 13:44-46, Lk 13:24, Ac 24:16, Ep 6:10-20, Php 2:12-13, Co 1:28-29, 1 Co 9:24, 2 Ti 2:3-5, He 4:11.

God gives us his Spirit, too, the same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead, the Spirit who brings comfort and truth and fruit because we belong to him. These gifts from him can be felt and known and seen in our lives when we’re in touch with him. If we’re not experiencing them, we’ve lost touch. But even so, God doesn’t, Josh 1:9; Jn 14:17, 26, 15:26, 16:13-15; Ro 8:11, Ga 5:22.

The Christian life is full of blessing, but it’s on us to do our part to believe and receive it. We aren’t passive, we’re active, and maybe our most active place is on our knees confessing that we don’t have what it takes. This is where I keep finding myself, asking for faith to trust him when I just can’t believe. Unless God enables me, I’m licked before I start, De 28, Ps 68:35, Is 64:4, Ro 10:17, 1 Co 2:5, 1 Jn 1:8-10.

But with him, the tiniest seed of faith can move mountains. With him, we’re more than conquerors. We’re victors, prize winners, investors and inheritors, citizens of heaven and earth, sons and daughters of the Father who never stops saving us, loyal subjects of the King of Kings who rules with selfless love, Ps 21:7 and 136; Mt 13:44-46, 17:20; Ro 8:3-39; Php 3:14, 20; 1 Co 9:24; 1 Pe 1:3-9; 1 Jn 3:1.

Where do we need to believe God more to move into this life he promises? Hard relationships, finances, disaster, disappointments–God uses all these to bring us into more and more real life with him. It’s not stuff that he’s mainly offering us. It’s mainly himself, whose beauty and abundance are beyond what we can dream up, “see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it,” Mal 3:10.

When you want a different life, ask God to help you dig into him and live differently in the life he’s already giving you.

Luke 4:14-44

In his hometown, Jesus reads a passage from Isaiah and claims he fulfills it. He’s God’s messenger of good news “to announce pardon to prisoners, recovery of sight to the blind, to set the burdened and battered free…,” Lk 4:16-21 MSG.

In short, Jesus’ mission was to change lives, to transform them. But the townspeople get hung up on who he thinks he is. They say, “isn’t this Joseph’s son?” which amounts to, “you can’t be the guy, ” and they simply don’t believe him, Lk 4:16-21 MSG.

The good news of Jesus is forgiveness for the guilty, recovery and healing for the sick and wounded, power that sets folks free from bondage, just like Isaiah predicted. I’m being set free from some mess I’ve been in, because I believe Jesus is who he said he is.

When you want a different life, turn to Jesus and ask for it, believing.

Psalm 65

When we arrive at God’s doorstep, broken and bleeding, addicted and whipped, he takes us in and forgives our sins.  We’re blessed–blessed to be his, blessed to be welcomed like this.  “We expect our fill of good things at your house,”  Ps 65:2:4 MSG.

God’s trophy room displays the wonders of his saving–how he’s moved heaven and earth to make us his, then decked out earth to join in the celebration. We get rainfall and spring, blessing and fruiting, snow covered mountains, and rose petaled pathways, Ps 65:5-12.

The hills are set to dance, canyons are dressed with sheep, valleys draped with flax. All of it “shouts and shouts and shouts” with praise, singing with us for the glory of the God who saves, Ps 65:12-13 MSG.

I can’t help but notice that the way we get in on all this merriment is this: “we arrive at his doorstep…loaded with guilt, our sins too much for us.”  This is where we begin, in brokenness and repentance.  And this is where we keep having to come back to, at least I do.

When you want a different life, find God’s glad welcome through repentance.

Prayer

God, I’m struggling to trust you with family issues. Increase my faith. Help me accept this life as your best for us. Help me trust. Thank you for Jesus, the Savior who heals us.

In his name.

Proverbs 11:22

Beauty is more than skin deep. Cultivate your inner self and watch real beauty break out.

Passages from Numbers, Luke, Psalms, and Proverbs are selected for today in The Yearly Bible.