Good

A couple months ago, someone asked me to write some devotionals.  I've decided to revise them a little into my upcoming posts.

In preparing for my first assignment, I asked my friend D what was one thing God has taught her through being single.  She hit me with this verse:

"For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless. Lord Almighty, blessed is the one who trusts in you."
Psalm 84:11-12

She explained that she learned that God doesn't withhold good things from His people.  He sees all things and knows what is good for us and what will be good for us.

If you asked me, I would say I believe that God is good.  Yet the root of my worry, my impatience, and even much of my sin lies in my struggle to not only assent to a good God in thought but also believe and trust in this with my whole being.

When we experience anxiety about our present, worry about our future; when we experience frustration or despair that our lives look different than we imagined they would, or even wrestle with the command to abstain from sins such as envy or sexual immorality, we have lost sight of God's goodness and God's love for us.

I have found that I need to be reminded that God's plans for me are not only good but supremely good.

When Eve sinned in the Garden, she first believed the lies that the enemy told her that God was withholding something good from her.  He told her that eating the fruit would not bring death but something good that God did not want her to have.  She doubted God's very character: God's perfect goodness.  She doubted His perfect love for her, and so she tried to grasp at what she thought she was missing.

Don't we do that too?  It is as if God is taking us to a 5-course feast at the best restaurant in the world but on the way, when the drive seems long and unknown, we doubt that God is taking us anywhere good at all.  We opt out for the McDonald's drive-thru, scraping together our spare change for the dollar menu.

We either spend our time in fear and worry about our future or grasp for what we think will bring us joy instead of trusting in the goodness of our Father.

So much of being single for me is trusting in God's timing, God's goodness, and God's plans for my life, but it is easier said than done.  Sometimes, when doubts creep in, I need to speak words that affirm who I know God to be: God is good, God is faithful, God is loving.

I need to remember that God is steadfast.  He is always true to His character.  I believe that God does not have just a good plan but the best plan.  I trust that God does not withhold what he knows is good from his children.

Dear Tim Tebow and Other Adventures

I've been single for awhile now, and one thing I've learned from being single is that people love playing matchmaker.  Now I know that some people find that annoying, but I actually find it amusing, especially in my situation being a 30-year-old Christian living in Massachusetts.

If a well-meaning matchmaker-in-the-making friend pokes and prods me enough, they'll soon discover that I hope to marry a man who loves Jesus because I want to share the most important part of my life with my husband.  Now for any of you Bible-belters out there, you should know that up here in Massachusetts, a lot of people, especially my friends who don't go to church on a regular basis, think that a Jesus-loving guy is a unicorn- more the stuff of legends than of reality.  So to them, finding a Jesus-loving guy who is also single, not a priest, not drinking any Kool-Aid, yet also old enough and young enough for me is a bit crazy to them.  Nonetheless, the amazing and loving people in my life have tried their best.  I'll share with you some of my favorites.

• One of my dearest friends in the world has lamented several times that she wishes her cousin wasn't gay because we would be perfect together since he is an Episcopal priest.

• One of my second cousins, in a moment of forgetting that I was actually related to her, tried to tell me that I would be perfect for her son.

• A couple of sweet church ladies who shall remain nameless thought they found the perfect guy for me until they learned he was 50 years old, married, and had 4 children.

• A woman on a mission trip asked me if I would consider waiting for her son, who was still in high school.

But the best matchmaking attempt of all time happened several years ago.  If anyone knows my Grammy, she is both a hard core Patriots fan and a Jesus-loving woman.  We avoid visiting her when the Pats are on because she doesn't like people talking through the game.  She wears her Teddy Bruschi pin to daily mass.  You get the picture.  You can also imagine that a Patriots player who also loves Jesus would be as close to perfect as you can get in Grandma's book.  She might even let him date one of her grandbabies.

Back when the Pats signed Tim Tebow, my grandmother was sure to tell me all about it.  Just like when my friends try to talk up a guy they want me to consider, Gram was sure to talk up Tim.  She told me about what he has said about his faith and the various missionary work he has been involved with.  She even saved the newspaper article about Tim being dyslexic and called to suggest to me that I get Tim to speak at the school I work at since all my students are dyslexic too.

Shortly after, oddly enough, I met one of Tim Tebow's good friends in Haiti.  I'm not the type of person who gives a professional sports player more attention than a janitor, but for Gram's sake, I made a point to strike up a conversation about Tim just so I could tell Gram about it later.

The best thing about grandmas like mine is that they aren't going to set you up with just any single guy they know, but they'll try to set you up with the best single guy they can think of.  Grandmas like mine never think that guy is too good, too famous, or too special for their granddaughters.  No, quite the opposite.  And in a world full of well-meaning but misguided matchmakers, it is endearing and encouraging to have someone love me like that.

Thank God for good grandmas.

"I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also."
2Timothy 1:5