Holy places: trash or treasure

Posted on August 27, 2021 by Jill English Johnston

Finding the holy in places others may not see.

Turn right at the mailboxes and drive down a twisting, winding dirt road. There’s a two acre plot on the mountain tucked under the tall pines. In the time I’ve spent there recently, I’ve discovered holy ground. Holy, not just because it’s in the beautiful Colorado mountains, but holy because it’s littered with what others would think of as trash, as junk, as rubbish.

If you know the man who owns the place, you know where others see trash, he sees treasure. Take a few moments and walk around the place with him and he will tell you about every item, every project, every venture. The rusted, dented body of a car in the throes of restoration. The pieces and parts he’s gathered to build something new. He’ll tell you how much he paid, taking pride in the good deals he finds, and he’ll tell you how much it will soon be worth.

He takes what the world has discarded or cheapened and touched it with his knowledge, his artistic and creative abilities, his meticulous care. He does it because he can. Because he loves to. Does that not remind you of the heart of our God?

Just like our Heavenly Father who takes someone the world has discarded, someone deemed unworthy and with no value, someone in need of divine attention and, with painstaking love and care, restores heart, life, and beauty into the person, making her who she is created to be. A person of treasure because of the Artist’s touch.

Finding God in places others may not see.

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The Truths We Hold by Kamala Harris

Posted on August 23, 2021 by Jill English Johnston

Just as I wanted to understand Michelle Obama and read her book, Becoming, I also wanted to get a personal look at our first female, first Black, and first Indian-American Vice President, Kamala Harris, so earlier this year I picked up her book, The Truths We Hold.

These two amazing women have secured a place in history, but they are also so very different. But that’s not surprising, is it? We all have our own, unique stories to tell.

Becoming felt like a casual conversation to me, a leisurely stroll together talking about events that impacted Michelle Obama personally. However, Truths left me breathless. Kamala Harris hit the ground running and raced me through the professional events in her life. One review I read said her book reads more like a campaign platform. While I don’t entirely disagree, as the book lays out who she is, what she believes, and what she has accomplished, she also touches on some pivotal moments in her childhood that played a big role in her life and career.

Harris comes from two cultural worlds, Jamaican and Indian and was surrounded by movers and shakers of the American civil rights movement during her formative years, giving her a perspective I definitely didn’t have.

While I may not agree with everything Harris supports, I admire how she passionately and aggressively seeks to correct the wrongs she sees. There are those that criticize her efforts or claim her projects and programs as flawed or failed, but to find what works, to reach a solution to the challenges we face, one must be willing to take the bold step of trying. As Winston Churchill said, “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”

What resounds throughout Harris’ book is courage. Courage to stand up to the powers that be, courage to work long and hard for values and ideals, courage to go where no woman has gone before.

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Chaos Can’t: Overcome What Comes Against You in This Shaken World by Allen Arnold

Posted on April 12, 2021 by Jill English Johnston

I’m a member of a local American Christian Fiction Writers chapter in San Antonio and one of the other members offered to facilitate a discussion on the book Chaos Can’t by Allen Arnold.

The book provides an easy ready, quite intentional by the author, in the way he breaks it up into short sections. Lots of white space in the physical book (I read mine on Kindle). But don’t let that mislead you. There’s plenty of practical depth to what Arnold gives us.

He begins by discussing what chaos is, then moves into the chaos we see in the world around us and in scripture. He reminds us that our enemy is not only the father of lies, he’s the bringer of chaos. But our Heavenly Father overcomes the chaos. In fact, our God created out of chaos.

Arnold then provides applications for guarding our hearts against chaos and for expanding our influence through our own creativity, by creating with our Heavenly Father. To become unshaken overcomes of chaos.

Arnold’s ultimate goal is to demonstrate how chaos can cripple creativity, but how creativity with our Heavenly Father, the Creator, can overcome the chaos around us.

I’ve always struggled with my writing time. It takes me a little while to get into my “creative space” and I write slow. Both demand a large chunk of time; I’m not one that can write a little in small chunks of time. I also struggle with writing when there’s a lot going on in my life. I let the chaos move from the external into my internal. I want to change that. I want to pursue my creativity in the midst of chaos rather than always wait for it to subside. My biggest takeaway is a prayer I am now praying: Jesus, guard my heart and keep chaos out and your peace within.

But don’t take my word for it. Pick up Chaos Can’t and free your creativity from chaos. After all, your Heavenly Father has placed creativity within you for his good purposes.

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The Gospel of Buc-ee’s

Posted on April 9, 2021 by Jill English Johnston

Jon and I have been traveling about the country now for about ten years (ever since we bought our travel trailer). Gas stops were always a challenge. Finding gas stations with easy in, easy out and enough room to navigate through. And of course, the challenge of finding clean bathrooms. There have been many times that I appreciated the convenience of pulling a bathroom behind the truck. I sometimes used the camper rather than brave the uncertainty and sometimes grossness of a gas station bathroom.

We stopped at our first Buc-ee’s when we were living in Mississippi and driving I10 to San Antonio to visit Jon’s parents. Our first mile marker on the long trip was the billboard near the Louisiana border that said “Only 262 Miles to Buc-ee’s. You can Hold It.” We counted down the signs until we got there. It became a beacon for every trip. We now live in New Braunfels (Buc-ee’s was kind enough to build in our new hometown) and when we drive east to visit our daughter and her family in Virginia, we have the option to stop (and often do) at four Buc-ee’s locations (and a fifth option if we drive about a half hour out of the way for the one near Gulf Shores). We’ve heard rumor there may be more coming along our route and we’re excited.

We have many reasons to love Buc-ee’s but that’s not the point of the gospel of Buc-ee’s. Over the years as we’ve traveled, we started noticing how gas stations are stepping up their game. They have cleaner bathrooms. More courteous employees. More coffee and soda options (pop for my northern family and friends). The newer gas stations are bigger, with more bathrooms, better bathrooms. And often more gas pumps that are easier to get in and out.

Sure you can argue economic competition. But. Buc-ee’s set out with a mission. Have the world’s cleanest bathrooms (it’s on their website). And have lots of them. Along with lots of gas pumps. Then combine it with great service, care about the customers and pay employees well. They did this and people came. And still come. And Buc-ee’s reaps the harvest of profit.

The gospel? Well, I don’t think Buc-ee’s went around trying to tell the gas stations how to do business. They weren’t telling other places what they should or shouldn’t be doing. They weren’t making a public fuss about the lack of clean bathrooms. They didn’t try to legislate for cleaner bathrooms or more pumps or higher wages. They just set an example of doing it well. Others took notice and started doing the same. And we travelers enjoy the benefits and the blessings.

“For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.” Jesus in the Gospel of John 13:15

“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew 5:14,16

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Swiss Cheese Theology

Posted on February 28, 2021 by Jill English Johnston

Swiss cheese theology. Or one might also call it hole in the fence theology.

No, I’m not talking about holes in our theology or our doctrine. Rather, I’m suggesting that maybe our theology and doctrines only see a small portion of who God is. Like peeking through a hole in a slice of swiss cheese. Or a hole in a fence.

My kids call it stinky cheese, but I love swiss cheese. I was eating a piece of it recently and it had a perfect, round hole in the center. Feeling silly, I held it up to my eye and peeked through it. I couldn’t see the whole kitchen, only the tiny bit I could see through the hole. There’s the microwave. And if I turn just a bit, there’s the door to the garage. Turn a bit more, the stove top. You get the idea. Looking through that tiny hole only allows me to see a tiny bit of the room.

I’ve found numerous reports, counts, and estimates of how many different christian denominations we have. We know of the various great schisms in the church throughout the years. Eastern and Western Orthodox. Catholic and Protestant. And it continues from there. To major denominations we know of as Methodist, Lutheran, Anglican, Pentacostal, Baptist, and so many more. Of course, that’s leaving out a plethora of other divisions that have occurred from the beginning of what we know of as the early church.

Each one has its own creeds, doctrines, tenants. Each one has lists of Scripture verses to support its beliefs. Sometimes even traditions held up along with the Scriptures.

And they all are like holes in swiss cheese. Or in a fence. By peeking through, we see glimpses of God. We see manifestations of who he is. But rarely does one exhibit or capture the entirety of our enormous God.

If we’re not careful, the holes become boxes. We wall off the section of our hole and claim we have the whole truth of who God is. And the others, well, maybe some have bits of truth, but not like we do. We stand on the truth we see in our box, proclaiming we’ve figured it out. And we don’t take the time or the opportunity to peek through the other holes. Sometimes we even react with shock at the idea. Because the other holes couldn’t be truth. Truth is seen through our hole. And we miss out on seeing so much more of our enormous God.

Reading the Bible can be a dangerous thing. If you want to hold on to your hole, your doctrine, your tiny bit of truth, don’t read the Bible. And by reading it, I mean the entirety of it. Beginning to end. Not just your favorite parts. Or the parts that describe your hole, this verse or that verse. This passage or that passage. The whole thing.

Because there are parts of the Bible that will blow more holes in your Swiss cheese. More holes in your fence. It can be uncomfortable. It might shake a bit of your foundation.

But you might find that suddenly you’re seeing more of God than ever before. You’re seeing more of his story and what he’s doing and how it all might fit together in his expansive plan.

You see the microwave. And you turn just a bit, and there’s the door to the garage. You turn a bit more, the stove top.

Suddenly you realize there’s an entire room. A house. God’s house. Bigger than we’ve known. Bigger than we realize. And because of Jesus, it’s filled with all of us who love him, each peeking through our own holes to see him.

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