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As a mom I wear many hats – “tutor,” “taxi-driver,” “nutritionist,” “mediator,” “counselor,” and the list goes on. Of all my many roles, though, “nurse” is my least favorite – especially when I have to pull out these bad boys:

Splinters are a regular occurrence with our crew of climbers and every time someone shows up with one (sometimes days after getting it), I know I’m in for a battle. Because “It hurts!” they want me to “Make it stop!” but… “Do you have to use THOSE?!”

Over the years, I’ve become a professional splinter-remover. It might cause a momentary increase in pain, but I’ll get it out before you know it!

Nothing splinters our relationship with God more than guilt. It’s a nagging twinge of pain reminding you of what you’ve done wrong and how you’ve failed to measure up. The sting of regret has a way of holding us back from receiving and trusting in His love.

A couple weeks ago, as I was removing a splinter from the hand of my other regular patient – my husband – he said to me, “It’s amazing how something that tiny can cause so much pain!” When we sin, we may expect the incident itself to cause pain, but we don’t realize that those leftover bits of guilt can cause even more pain if we let them stick around.

In the Old Testament, God, knowing His people would struggle with sin and subsequently, guilt, set up a system of sacrifices. As the guilty person made their offering, the spiritual penalty was lifted from them and put on the animal – blood that was not their own was shed for their forgiveness (see Hebrews 9:22). They walked away having seen a visual representation of their pardon and the transfer of their guilt.

When Jesus died, He became the final offering and “we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all”.(Hebrews 10:10) We no longer need to make offerings for our sin since “by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.” (10:14) The spiritual penalty for our sin was transferred to Jesus as He hung on the cross – and He took our guilt as well.

As a Christian, I can accept that Jesus took my sin, but I have a harder time accepting that I can let go of the guilt, too. Remorse can be a good thing when it leads me to an awareness and acknowledgment of sin, but after that its job is done. Unfortunately, like many believers, rather than let the tweezers do their thing, I have a tendency to let those splinters stay lodged deep in my soul.

Guilt is a comfort zone because even though it nags away, we believe the constant reminder will force us to change. Maybe if I keep remembering what I did and how sorry I feel, I can guarantee it won’t happen again. I’ve sat up many a night reliving things I’ve said or done, telling myself, “I won’t ever let that happen again!”

Sometimes we hold on to guilt because the emotion of ‘feeling bad’ seems a deserved punishment. Lingering guilt multiplies the pain and helps us get back at ourselves for those “I can’t believe I did that!” moments. If we just let it go, it’s like we’re ‘getting away with it’.

Other times we think if we feel bad enough for long enough, we’ll somehow prevent any further consequences of our sin from happening. Maybe if I show God how bad I feel and how sorry I am, this will all be over. Even as we worship, we keep a grasp on guilt, hoping it will produce deeper emotion as we sing to Him.

But none of this feeling extra sorry, inflicting extra pain, or generating extra motivation is necessary because God has already said, “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.” (Hebrews 10:17) If He’s choosing to not remember my sin, I can follow His lead and do the same! I can trust that, “where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary.” (10:18) It’s then that I can truly “draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings.” (10:22)

Splinters happen and so does guilt. But anything beyond the prick of the Holy Spirit leading us to repentance is not of God. Whether it’s real or imagined, from sin or from an honest mistake, prolonged guilt has no place in the life of a Christian.

My acceptance of Jesus as Savior is also an acceptance of His acceptance of me – no matter what.* My weaknesses, failures, and even intentional sins are no longer mine – they are His and my life is now part of His much bigger plan. In her book, “Nothing to Prove,” author Jennie Allen says, “Your eyes may still feel glued to the carpet with fear and shame but God has a sneaky way of not only forgiving our past sin but redeeming the choices we thought had ruined everything.”

What guilt have you been letting nag at you?
Will you hold out your splintered hand and let the ‘Professional Splinter-Remover’ take it away today?

*”Ruthless Trust,” Brennan Manning, Chapter One

They’re my favorite animals, but I think they get a bad rap sometimes. Officially designated as the slowest mammals on earth*, sloths move an average of only 40 yards per day**! Their lack of speed even resulted in their being named “sloth” – a word that means “slow” and “sluggish”.

But sloths aren’t lazy – they’re just smart! On a diet of only leaves, twigs, and buds that take days to digest, sloths have little energy to burn which means every action is a purposeful decision – they don’t waste calories on needless movement. Their laid-back lifestyle gives them little reason to rush!

In our fast-paced “go, go, go” world, the perfectly steady, slow motion of sloths is fascinating to us. When I take my kids to the zoo, I feel like I could stand there and watch them for hours (but who has time for that?!).

If we could go back in time and eyewitness Jesus as He walked on this planet, I think we would be mesmerized by His pace. During His three years of ministry, He certainly moved, but He was never in a rush. Even though His supernatural skills were in high demand and the needs around Him were thousands-fold deep, His every action was calculated and He didn’t waste energy trying to do it all.

Jesus didn’t have a need for speed because, unlike us, He had a completely accurate view of God’s eternal plan. He knew that “with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” (2 Peter 3:8) and that even if it looked like He was missing opportunities, moving faster wasn’t going to increase God’s ability to work through Him. Even though He saw the crowds as “harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd” (Matthew 9:36), He did not bow to the pressure to meet all of their urgent and compelling needs. He lived in complete trust that “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9)

If you’ve ever tried to mimic a sloth’s pace, you know that it’s incredibly hard for us humans to do. Our muscles have a difficult time moving that slow and it almost takes more effort than going fast!

As followers of Jesus, parents, employees, friends, family members, and community citizens, we are surrounded by a world of compelling and urgent needs, making “slowing down” seemingly impossible. We’d much prefer to flutter about, using up our valuable energy in an attempt to do it all. The needs are thousands-fold deep, causing us to live in fear of missed opportunities – especially when our skills and talents are in high demand.

In the animated children’s movie, “Zootopia” there is a scene featuring my ever-patient, smiling animal friends as Department of Motor Vehicle workers (If you haven’t seen it, you can check it out here: https://youtu.be/ONFj7AYgbko). Officer bunny Judy Hopps and her friend Nick Wilde the fox are working on a time-sensitive case and are in need of some information from Nick’s sloth buddy, appropriately named “Flash”. Flash, even with Officer Hopps’ increasing irritation, sees no reason to hurry, and even stops to tell his co-worker a joke!

Maybe the sloths get it and we don’t. Maybe they see that life is over in a flash and there’s no point in wasting our energy getting things done just so we can get more things done. Maybe if we intentionally and purposefully slowed down we would see that so much of what we think we’re doing to “help” is actually just our pride – after all, our skills are in high demand and if we don’t do it, who will?

A couple days ago, after having an extra-rough morning with one of our girls, I took her out for a special “Mommy Date” so we could chat. As we ate donuts, I asked questions, trying to get to the root of the problem. My mind was reeling with ideas as I thought about plans and strategies we could use as parents to help her navigate these frustrating times.

As we were driving home, I was still in “This-is-my-opportunity-to-be-Superhero-Fix-It-Mommy” mode and was so focused on my conversation with her that I ran a red light and ended up in the middle of a busy intersection, frantically trying to maneuver my car to safety. I was so focused on the problem and my plans that I forgot that my purpose in that moment was to simply drive the car and keep my child (and other drivers) safe!

Pride is sneaky and it’s so easy to get caught up in the urgency and opportunities that touch our lives. We don’t have the low muscle tone of a sloth, so our attempts to follow Jesus’ example of slowing down are going to take some effort. I need to practice regular evaluation of my heart’s intentions and my understanding of God’s purpose for me in any given moment. I may perceive that my skills and talents are in high demand but they are never a necessity to an all-powerful God!

“Unless the Lord builds the house,
those who build it labor in vain.
Unless the Lord watches over the city,
the watchman stays awake in vain.
It is in vain that you rise up early
and go late to rest,
eating the bread of anxious toil;
for he gives to his beloved sleep.”
(Psalm 127:1-2)

P.S. Speaking of slowing down, I’ll be taking a some blog-time off to give my brain a rest – see you in a couple weeks!

*https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/it-s-official-three-toed-sloths-are-the-slowest-mammals-on-earth/
**http://www.worldwildlife.org/stories/why-are-sloths-slow-and-other-sloth-facts

There’s nothing like a cool August morning on Lake Groton in northern Vermont. You just can’t beat waking up in a lakeside cabin, grabbing a cup of coffee, and walking outside to take in the crystal clear view of green mountains reflecting in undisturbed waters.

One morning last summer, though, the view was anything but clear:

Thick, heavy fog had completely covered the lake surface, making it impossible to see the other side – or even the lake itself!

When I first walked outside, the only things visible were the dock and chairs. But as the morning went on and the warmth of the sun evaporated the mist, things began to appear.

With every minute that passed, more was visible. The trees became greener and the blue of the sky was increasingly revealed.

After about an hour, the last of the low-lying clouds retreated and our view was fully restored.

Isaiah 44:22 says: “I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist. Return to me, for I have redeemed you.” This verse is such a fascinating picture of God’s work in our lives! The disorienting sinful nature we are born with continually clouds our judgment, leaving us in a fog when it comes to right and wrong. And not only that, it also obscures our view of God and His work in our lives.

But because of His great love, we who were once “strangers,” unknowingly “alienated from God” and “darkened in [our] understanding,” have had our eyes opened so that we might be “reconciled” and, therefore, “brought near”*. When our sin is “swept away” by the blood of Christ, our view of God is no longer hindered by its haze.

The thought that I – a tiny little human – could somehow be given a even glimpse of the splendor and majesty of the God of the Universe boggles my mind! Unfortunately, though, it’s hard to be content with a glimpse because I want to see it all – I so want to understand God and mostly, I want to know exactly what He’s doing in my life. But like the clearing of the mist, God’s revelation of His work never happens all at once.

In Mark 8:22-25, there is a story of a blind man whose sight was restored by Jesus:

They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, “Do you see anything?”
He looked up and said, “I see people; they look like trees walking around.”
Once more Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.

Notice that Jesus’ work in the blind man’s situation happened in two stages. He was given sight, but at first he could only see partially. It was in Jesus’ continued work where the man’s vision was fully restored and he could see everything – including his Healer – clearly.

Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgments,
and his paths beyond tracing out!
(Romans 11:33)

God’s work in our lives is often exactly that – “unsearchable” and “beyond tracing out”. This is frustrating for us, but He doesn’t work like a television show where all the pieces come together, the answers are revealed, and the mystery is solved in an hour or less. Sure, we hear stories of people looking back and seeing clearly how God worked in a situation, but that doesn’t mean that’s a guarantee for us. There may be many things we never understand.

In Isaiah 44, prior to the verse mentioned above, God goes into detail describing the exact sin His people, Israel, were guilty of:

“The blacksmith takes a tool
and works with it in the coals;
he shapes an idol with hammers,
he forges it with the might of his arm.”
(Isaiah 44:12)

The idols God’s people had chosen over Him were gods made with human hands – they were gods originating in human minds whose ways fit into human understanding.

As author Peter Scazzero describes: “God is immanent (so close) and yet transcendent (so utterly above and far from us). God is knowable, yet he is unknowable. God is inside us and beside us, yet he is wholly different from us… Most of the time we have no idea what God is doing.”** If we’re going to call Him our “God”, then we must come to terms with the fact that He is not required to work only in the realm of our human perception!

Looking back, that morning at Lake Groton was anything but disappointing, because even in the fog, the view was still worth looking at! The process was beautiful and in rushing it we would have missed out on an amazing experience.

Clearly, God is more interested in the process than the product because, as Jesus illustrated in His healing of the blind man, the process involves the greater thing. The experience of His loving touch as He continues His work in our lives will always outweigh the lesser product of our understanding of it.

*Ephesians 2:12, Colossians 1:21, and Ephesians 4:18, Acts 26:18, Colossians 1:22, Ephesians 2:13
**”Emotionally Healthy Spirituality”, p. 129