Sunshine and an Open Gate

By Brenda Black


They bolted like school children released for recess, with tails curled up and over their backs. Weaned calves in a lot out back of the house provided my afternoon entertainment.Through the newly opened gate they darted as if hearing the starting bell on a race track. I giggled at their athletic antics. One would tear across the pen like she was making a great escape, only to charge a matter of a few yards before meeting the metal rungs of the corral – face to fence. In one swift spin, she'd turn and run again, this time with the rest of the herd in hot pursuit.

For several minutes, their game of tag and turn and sprinting continued. When the running waned, they stood head to head and practiced butting. If calves could smile, I'm pretty sure they were grinning from fuzzy ear to fuzzy ear with great delight. The mild and sunny day in the middle of a cold January was most welcome to the weanlings and offered up a healthy dose of doldrum-ending exercise.

It didn't take much to alter their routine and find it delivered such great joy. Sometimes all one needs is a bit of sunshine and a little more room to roam. Take me for instance. I get a bit stir crazy post holidays. I begin to feel cramped for space and eager to purge. It's like spring cleaning in winter when the Christmas tree comes down.

I broke an all-time record this year of leaving the greenery up all too long. It was Jan. 13, by the time I got everything packed away! Never in my life have I gone past the single digit point of the first month on the calendar when it comes to dismantling the holiday cheer. But travels and work and plain weariness had me postponing the dreadful chore.

Now that the Christmas ambiance is headed to the attic, my house seems quite spacious. In fact, I have yet to return many of my non-seasonal knick knacks back to their standard locations. I'm just enjoying the sunshine and the open gate. I feel freer and lighter and less constrained by so much stuff. I'm thinking of spring garage sales and wondering if I should just leave a lot of my things boxed up ready to affix price tags.


Life gets cold and cluttered at times. Like calves stuck in a pen where it's been snowy and cramped, we can feel constrained by symbolic fences that seem to close in on us in our homes and in our hearts.

What I haven't told you is that as much as I would like to blame the Christmas clutter for my claustrophobic feelings, it has more to do with worries that I'm struggling to turn over to the Lord. Bare walls and shelves seems to help when I feel like I'm going to suffocate from fearful thoughts of things totally beyond my control. So, for a few more days, I'm planning on enjoying the space and I'm not going to rush to fill it back up again. And I also intend to soak up the Son a whole lot more in the days ahead. For at His feet and in His light, can be found my joy and the perfect gate to freedom.

Holy Knee-cessity

By Brenda Black

A tingling, taught sensation pulsated through my knee. I knew it was swelling and I could detect instant puffiness since the problem has become all too familiar the past couple of weeks. I prop up my foot and ice down the right knee after every workout now and I've started using a brace. By all indications, I've pushed this old knee a little too far with weights, lunges, 4 mile walks and up-and-down circuit training that have all depended on support from this small, but invaluable joint.

As I tolerate the aggravating set-back, I'm thinking about those in the family who have endured or are facing knee surgery. And I think about the hundreds of miles my husband has jogged our gravel road and the thousands of hours he has ground his knee cap into cement floors, crawling and troweling to give concrete customers a satin finish at the cost of a calloused patella. My husband's denims are thread-thin evidence of such hard labor.

Our efforts to exercise and his dedication to duty are taking their toll on both cartilage and the blue jean budget around here, but our bigger concern is whether our knees are worn out from holy use. Holiness isn't a condition, it's a position – a humble, kneeling crouch at the foot of the cross. We spend time trying to get physically fit. We use our physical strength to work diligently, but are we spiritually down in the trenches, humbly praying?

God made knees for sitting and running and bouncing grandkids and kicking soccer balls. But He also made them for kneeling, not just bearing a load or baring skin through a pair of worn out britches. I want to wear my knees out for a holy cause! Tim Hansel's book Holy Sweat says it best right on the font cover: “Holy Sweat – The remarkable things ordinary people can do when they let God use them!” I want to be used! How about you?

If you are like me, the only way we will ever fulfill this knee-cessity is to ice down our old ways and wrap ourselves in the Word of God so that we know how to live and know what to pray. “Therefore, prepare your minds for action;” Peter instructs in his first letter to “God's elect, strangers in the world...” (1 Peter 1:13a).

“...be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: 'Be holy, because I am holy.'” (1 Pet. 1:13b-16)

Still wondering what to pray? “Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess yours sins to each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” (James 5:13-16)

This is a wholly, holy revelation when you stop and think about it. In back-to-back books on pages bound through the ages to appear right next to one another, in parallel passages that have been identically numbered, 13 through 16, James and Peter subscribe a healthy protocol for holiness.

Peter says prepare you minds for action while James says ask for help. Holiness is half as effective when we practice it apart from our brothers and sisters in Christ. It is best demonstrated when we put it to use. We might just be someone's only intercessor. Always be ready to pray for those who ask.

Peter warns be self-controlled and set your hope fully on the grace of Jesus Christ. James says call for help. People will only ask for help if they know it is safe. Holiness offers compassion, not judgment. As we stand in the gap for others, we must be careful to pray from a place of grace.

James compels us to confess our sins so that we might be forgiven. Peter promises that holiness is possible for those who are obedient and do not conform to their evil desires. Holiness follows repentance. We can't pray for others until we first pray for ourselves.

Holiness is born out of humility on the part of the those who ask for prayer and those who offer it. Together, we can brace one another for the long haul and enjoy a pain free eternity if we strive to be holy because Christ is holy. This is the work that is knee-cessary.

Tough Enough

Tough Enough
By Brenda Black

Think tough! What comes to mind? Steel workers climbing 10 stories into the air, wielding hammers and torches, or a stocky bull rider who gets back up after a hundred slams into arena dirt? Tough can be rough. Maybe your idea of tough is kick boxing agility. Tough may be athletic and lean. And if your image of tough looks more like punks in a street gang, then tough can be mean. I'm not tough it seems.

I'd like to think I can go toe to toe with any physical challenge. The truth of the matter is I run out of steam a whole lot sooner than later. Frankly, I have less to prove when it comes to raw strength and that suits me quite well. It keeps me from heaving cumbersome bales of hay and hauling heavy buckets of water. Well, at least I am licensed to move a little slower. But I'm not tough if it gets rough.

I've noticed my weakness in multiple muscle groups these past several weeks while attempting to exercise. If I call on the abs or back or legs, all they want to do is quiver. But I keep pressing on with the hopes that pushing my body into submission will one day render it stronger. It's going to take a long time I'm afraid before I feel athletic and lean. So far, I am m not a lean, mean fightin' machine.
So I'd rather reason with an enemy than fist fight any old day of the week. I think good manners can alleviate all sort of matters. And if it comes to beating someone into submission in order to elevate myself in power, it's probably not going to happen. So there isn't a chance that tough on me looks mean.

On the other hand, I work at staying tough mentally and I can be pretty mean to me to keep the old noodle agile and lean. I hate forgetting names and numbers or where I parked the car. I push myself to solve puzzles, unscramble words, learn new terminology or master graphics software. And, for the record, I was the only one to solve a young man's mathematical riddle at church last Sunday. Whew! That made my day to outwit the masses of agile teens struggling for the answer.

All these strenuous exercises and the constant challenges to both body and brain cells are meant to strengthen and sharpen. But when it comes to answering some of life's toughest questions, one more area in our lives needs a little training – the spirit. No big bicep will help you wrestle with sin. It takes more than common sense or quick thinking to improve a prayer life. Weights won't prepare you to walk in Christ and jogging can't make you a generous soul.

Just as the body and brain need tough training, so does the part of us that is eternal. Conditioning our hearts to beat in rhythm to God's pattern for right living begins with surrendering it to the Lord Himself. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.” (Proverbs 3:5-6)

As we soften our soul to be pliable in God's hands, we strengthen our stand. When the Lord spoke to the house of David, He warned: “If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all.” (Isaiah 7:9)

I want to walk and not grow weary, run and not faint. I want to soar like an eagle and be bold and strong for Christ! I want to commit to memory the things that matter most like pearls of wisdom from God's Holy Word. And I want to toughen my faith to be bullet proof and purposeful.

How about you? When you think tough, does a man hanging on a cross and speaking forgiveness come to mind? Does a Heavenly King who humbled himself to an earthen vessel ring any bells? Jesus was tough enough to die for us. Can't we be strong enough to stand for him in this rough old world? Let's get busy training our bodies, minds and souls to go to work for the Lord!