All Tied Up in Knots

Here I am again with inspiration-overload from my youngest grandson, Bryson. This time it comes from his wall climbing lesson at Crux Climbing Center (indoor wall climbing of gigantic proportions). He has moved on up (literally) in his skills to the “advanced” level – going 30 feet up -- climbing with the safety of a rope held by his instructor while Bryson uses his legs and arms to grab hold of the strategically placed holds. He grabs the rope, brings it up and hooks it into a clip. I am so impressed. His birthday is next week and all he has asked for is to go with his instructor to scale a nearby mountain.

Yesterday I noticed that his instructor checked how he had knotted his safety rope. Bryson thought he was good to go, but he had missed one of the ties. Yikes! That was a KNOT – he couldn’t get wrong. It was a life-saving knot. There really are times when a knot is essential – like “tying the marriage knot” – that we hope it lasts a lifetime. Tight knots in the rope are absolutely necessary in wall or rock climbing, at the end of a fishing line with a hook and lure on it to catch a fish, or a knot that holds an anchor to the rope to keep that boat or ship from drifting. There are knots we need and those we don’t. What about those knots in our lives that we don’t need – like the two knots I have in one of my favorite necklaces or the knot that was in Bryson’s yo-yo yesterday that kept him from a good spin!

Or what about the "knots" we get in our stomachs that represent a concern or worry? Sometimes we need to untie some of the “knots” that keep our minds and our hearts in bondage. Often, they are “knots” of our own wrong thinking, “knots” that we’ve allowed to burrow deep into our souls and become permanent residents there.

I'm going to use a "play on words" to encourage us to let go of some KNOTS – the have-nots, the can-nots, and the am-nots. All of these nots are legitimately knots that keep us tangled up in woe is me, poor me, and not me. For example, we can get all tied up in the "have nots" when we focus on what we don’t have instead of being thankful for what we do have. A post of mine from 2016 showed up in my memories timeline and I saw the homes of people in Mexico who truly have almost nothing of this world’s goods, but I was again amazed at their contentment, their joy in the midst of what we would call deep poverty. We classify them as the have nots of this world, and yet they displayed more contentment and purpose in life than lots of us do here where our lives are crowded with stuff. We can untie ourselves from the have-nots by developing a thankful attitude. To start each day with a focus on being gratefu by saying, “Thank you, Jesus,” at every point in our day—for the sunshine, for safety, for good health, for friends. Being thankful will set us free from the have-nots!

And then there are the can-nots where we talk ourselves out of stepping out and doing something because we tell ourselves we can-not do it? Philippians 4:13 says, “I can do all things through Christ Who gives me strength." That means that everything God intends for us to do, we can do it in His ability and strength in us!

And, finally, one more “knot” that has many of us tangled up is the am-not. How often we focus on all our am-nots instead of focusing on the WHO we are in Jesus Christ. For example, the times when we think or declare “I am not qualified,” “I am not good enough,” “I am not as good as others”? Oh, how the enemy of our soul loves to keep us looking at ourselves instead of looking at the child of God, royal heir, who was purchased with a great price. When God sees us in Christ, He doesn’t see our mistakes of the past; He sees the righteousness of His Son. God never compares us with others; He takes us where we are, gives us hope for the future, and assures us that nothing can separate us from His love.

It's time for us, by God’s grace, to get rid of the have-nots, can-nots and am-nots that we’ve harbored far too long. Don’t believe the enemy’s lies any longer. When you get all tied up in KNOTS, just quote this scripture from Romans 8:38-39 “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

The Greatest “Once-Upon-A Time” Love Story Ever

Don’t you love that start to a movie or a story because you just know there's going to be a happy ending at the end. I love thinking about my own “Once upon a time” love story, but no love story compares to this beginning…..

Once upon a tree…..a Creator gave His life for His creation. From the very beginning of time…..this true story began….but there was never, and there will never be a “The End”, to this story. It took our Creator stepping up to give His life for His creation so that all of man’s mistakes from the beginning of time, could have a happy EVER AFTER!

Every one of us are writing our stories by the way we live our lives each day. No, we don't have to have a "Once upon a tree"....story, because God lived that story once and for all for all of us. Some of our stories may seem ho-hum, while other stories may be adventures-of-a-lifetime every day, but we can choose how our story reads out. Maybe one of these beginnings would look good in your story:

Once upon a phone…..a devoted follower of Christ shared encouragement and love with his friend, and the friend met the Creator through him. It was a happy-ever-after phone story.

Once upon a greeting card….. there was someone who was hurting so much, but she realized someone else was hurting more than she was, so she shared the faithfulness of God in her card, and they both received renewed strength for their journeys of faith.

Once upon a car…..someone’s friend needed a ride to their doctor, so the driver became a chauffeur for God that showed what “mercy” looks like.

Once upon a dollar…..a kind-hearted soul, gave that dollar, and a hug, to a blind man holding a tin cup.

Once upon a rope…..someone tossed the end to a drowning man and saved their life. That day, the rope and the rope-thrower became a life-saver.

Once upon an altar…..someone gave their time to pray for someone who needed a Savior.

And that brings us right back to the very beginning of the “Once upon the beginning of time” story that has no ending, because in each of those scenarios the answer came with Jesus’ words to Peter “Peter do you love me? Then, feed my lambs. Peter do you love me? Feed my sheep.” And those words to Peter are Jesus’ words to us. “Do you love me? Love and care for my sheep.”

God started it all. He gave His one and only Son’s life for those who come to know Him as Lord. He asks us to be a part of His never ending story. Maybe we are the answer to someone’s prayers and, of course, we are the answer to sharing God’s story enough to give those He loves a never-ending story of their own.

In between the “Once upon a time” and the “happy ever after”…..there’s a whole lotta living going on – living to love and serve others, loving enough to be a light that draws them to the cross where our Savior died and to the empty tomb where He no longer lives, but is seated at the Father’s right hand, interceding and welcoming us to our HAPPY EVER AFTER with Him.

Once upon a Facebook post, someone told this story with the great expectation that God’s story begins in YOU and me!

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him, would not perish but have everlasting life." John 3:16