"If it's not, they're sure gonna know it."

Give careful thought to the paths of your feet and be steadfast in all your ways.
Proverbs 4:26 

I'm working on a project in another state right now that is created quite an opportunity to ponder and work on walking out how to stand resolutely in your God-honoring witness -- while still being winsome to people who are either against your faith out right, or completely calloused to the thought that what you believe might actually be serious to you, and might really be more real than all their straining and striving for approval and worth in everyone's eyes.

It's rather difficult much of the time, but really powerful and motivating at the same time.  As cliché as it is to say, I wouldn't trade it for the world.  But I'm equally thankful I don't have to live in an environment saturated with this kind of thing all day, every day.

 Working this closely with unbelievers is always eye-opening in new ways each time.  And as my sister has agreed, this time it's been especially heartbreaking to watch; storing our hearts (rather painfully) to actively seek to make an impact however we might be used.
It's easy to forget what lost-ness really looks like from anything less than a 10,000 foot, heard-it-in-a-sermon view.  And easy to settle in being convinced that lost-ness's aimless wandering in and self promoting are only, purely due to pride and selfishness (of course that kind of thinking would cause us to lose much of our compassion) -- and miss seeing the fact that there are broken, bruised, hopeless hearts stumbling heavily under all those earthly, callous layers.

We love because He first loved us.
1 John 4:19


Ultimately it comes to loving each of these people as only Jesus could love something so battered.  Like small, pre-Heaven 'healing of harms', as C.S. Lewis put it.
For humans like us, this is a very delicate, fairly individual process, not unlike caring for serious wound.  Of course you care for the rawness of it, with light and tender touches, but you also take care of a smooth salve over the broken places, even when it stings, to block out infections and grime and help the injury start to heal from the inside.  You yourself can't actually make the healing of those spots happen.  But you can help them along, if you don't jump in thoughtlessly and start scraping at them with a steel wool pad.

Part of that relying largely in your own quiet, solid, non-attacking authenticity of faith, instead of jumping to heavy-handed or hard-hitting arguments packed with disapproval and legalism.  In the words of tobyMac's song, 'Like A Match':

"I keep hearing people say, 'I need a getaway.'
We've got that getaway that takes them to a holy place.
Won't leave us empty, won't leave us craving more;
We found that fulfilling fire that they been looking for.
Oh oh oh oh
If it's real, we've got to show it,
Oh oh oh oh
‘Cause if it's not, they sure gonna know it.
You and me, we gotta love,
Hold nothing back.
You and me, we gotta love,
Strike it up, like a match.
...Ever tasted something sweet that knocked you off your feet?
...I call up all my friends, I gotta let ‘em in;
I tell them, "Take a drink of this and never thirst again."
...If it's real, we gotta show it,
‘cause if it's not, they sure gonna know it.
Burning for the world to see.  ...That's who we are.
If it's real, we gotta show it,
‘cause if it's not, they sure gonna know it.
...You and me, we gotta love,
Hold nothing back."

 And tobyMac/dctalk's awesome song, 'What Love Feels Like':

"I am tired, I am drained,
But the fight in me remains.
I am weary, I am worn,
Like I've never been before.
This is harder than I thought,
Harder than I thought it'd be.
Harder than I thought,
Takin' every part of me.
Harder than I thought,
So much harder than I thought it'd be--
But empty's never felt so full.
...This is what love, this is what love
Feels like.
Poured out, used up, still giving--
Stretching me out to the end of my limits.
This is what love, this is what real love
Feels like.
...Love is calling us to more...
This is what love, this is what love feels like.
Poured out, used up, still willing to fight for it.
...And now these three remain;
Faith, hope and love,
But the greatest of these is love.
It's worth everything you put in...
Love--
This is what it feels like.
Poured out, used up, still givin'
Stretching me out to the end of my limits This is what love feels like."

Nearer to God's heart in a garden

  'One is nearer to God's heart in a garden than anywhere else on earth.'

                                                         --Dorothy Frances Gurney

   This summer I've been able to spend much more of the time I've often wanted tending the little garden spots around our house.  In these recent months, they've really started to flourish and explode with many dozens of beautiful blooms.

  'The joyful birds prolong the strain, their song with every spring renewed; the air we breathe, and falling rain, each softly whispers,

                                           God is good.'

                                                                                                                                   --John Hampden Gurney

   I love the time I get to spend planting and planning and watering and guiding vines and adding stakes and yes, even weeding, as I work my little treasures in the dirt with hummingbirds excitedly buzzing to every bloom and our cats 'helping' me with whatever I'm working on.  So many wonderful smells and brilliant colors and graceful shapes.  I'm especially enjoying the surprises from the wildflower seeds I scattered around as they pop open, a few at a time, in an unexpected elegant parade.

  During many of the hours I've been spending in my garden, I've been struck by how wonderful and amazing it is that God Himself takes time to enjoy what He has made in the natural world in similar ways.
  The God who has formed and seen things far more spectacular than a rose, still made dozens of colors and varieties and smells to blow us away.  He has built many things much more powerful than wild grasses, yet He bothered to make a hundred, hundred textures and hues and habits to soften every open space and bend in the invisible wind.  Certainly the sun and moon were grand enough lights to warrant their being the only things in the sky.  But He preferred to sprinkle every inch of heaven with uncountable dazzling stars, each different from the others and just as marvelous as every other part of His creation.

  And He stepped back after His creating —and I believe still does— to enjoy the work of His hands, and He said that it was good.

  

   'The God who holds the whole world in His hands

wraps Himself in the splendor of the sun's light and walks among the clouds.'
                                                      --Unknown

   'Forbid that I should walk through Thy beautiful world with unseeing eyes:

Forbid that the lure of the market-place should ever entirely steal my heart away from the love of the open acers and the green trees:

          Forbid that under the low roof of workshop or office or study I should ever forget Thy great overarching sky.'
                                             --John Baillie

  'The beauty of the earth, the beauty of the sky, the order of the stars, the sun, the moon... their very loveliness is their confession of God;  for who made these lovely mutable things, but He who is Himself unchangeable beauty?'
                                                                                                          --Augustine

  'The day is done,

The sun has set,

Yet light still tints the sky;

My heart stands still

In reverence,

For God is passing by.'

                                                 --Ruth Alla Wager

(All pictures are my own and belong to me.)