Lighthouse Keeper

Keeping the lights on to guide you home

recent posts

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

  • God gives the increase

    Photo by Ochir-Erdene Oyunmedeg on Unsplash

    I planted, Apollos watered, but God [all the while] was causing the growth.( 1 Corinthians 3:6  AMP)

    I thought I’d give you an update on the rose garden bed that I put back to lawn grass. 

    I wrote a little post about sowing and reaping and yes, I sowed very generously. 

    I used this stuff called Lawn Force. Quite proud of my efforts of putting in new top soil and putting the seed down. OK I had a bit of help from my friend’s landscaping business because the concrete garden beds needed ripping out too. 

     The Bible says that God will increase your store of seed and I had lots to work with. A whole packet of Lawn Force. 

    So what happened? Did the grass grow?

    Well yes but not because of my efforts. 

    I wasn’t a particularly good steward. I probably watered it once a day but you’re meant to keep it damp 24/7. Then my Temu hose broke and I couldn’t be bothered ordering a new one in time. So not enough water. The seed didn’t germinate. The lawn was patchy and sad looking.  The packet said it would germinate in seven days-but it didn’t.

    Until…

    We had a wet spring week and then some sunshine and voila! The lawn took off.  Probably a month after I sowed the 7-day seed.

    Now I can’t contain it. It needs mowing once a week from all the growth and it’s lush and green. The new seed I sowed generously from my own strength but the increase came from God. He brought the spring rain:

    “Ask rain from the Lord in the season of the spring rain, from the Lord who makes the storm clouds, and he will give them showers of rain, to everyone the vegetation in the field” (Zechariah 10:1 ESV)

    God all the while was causing growth. You can only do so much in your own efforts and the rest, leave to God. Praying over harvests or investments? Surrender them to God, be a good steward and plan and budget but ultimately, it is God who will bring the increase. Concerned about church growth? Preach the Gospel and leave the results up to God. Work with others as Paul worked with Apollos and give credit to the people around you who are also working in the harvest field. You can’t (and won’t) do it on your own. And most importantly, you can’t grow grass without God.  If you sow generously, you will reap generously but not because of your own efforts.

  • Lydia wasn’t a “trad wife”

    Smiling waitress in white t shirt and brown apron holding pot and take away cup in hands, looks at camera with happy facial expression, woman with positive expression.

    One of those listening was a woman from the city of Thyatira named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth. She was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message.  When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home. “If you consider me a believer in the Lord,” she said, “come and stay at my house.” And she persuaded us (Acts 16:14-15). 

    I went to my local cafe the other day and was served by a young woman-probably about 18 years old would be my guess?


    She was wearing a beautiful Karen Walker jewellery “Bow” necklace. I’m also a fan of the Karen Walker jewellery (not an ad) and so the magpie in me noticed her lovely silver chain.

    “I like your Karen Walker necklace. I have the “Runaway Girl” but I really like the “Bow”, I said to her. 

    She perked up. “Oh yeah. It was the one thing I bought with my first ever pay cheque. I’ve had my eye on it for a while”. 

    Now I know these necklaces are about USD$300 so it probably took her whole coffee shop wages, but I was thrilled for her. 

    Seeing young women earning their own money and buying nice things for themselves gives me real joy. The independence to value yourself enough to work and to earn builds dignity. There may be times in the future when a woman’s money has to go to childcare and paying mortgages and all the boring stuff. So it’s great to see our young women having some time to explore the world and find themselves with some beautiful objects. 

    I have a lot to say about the “trad wife” movement and I won’t go into all that today but suffice to say there are about 200 women in the Bible and not many of them fit the 1950’s “trad wife” model. It is a cultural construct and not something we see in Scripture. 

    Let’s take a look at Lydia in the Book of Acts. 

    Lydia was a business woman who also hosted a house church in her home. Acts 16 says she was “a dealer in purple cloth” which was the sort worn by royalty. So maybe Lydia was a designer like Karen Walker?  She is considered to be the first recorded Christian convert in Europe.  The Bible does not mention whether or not Lydia has a husband. What it does state is that she “was a worshiper of God” (Acts 16:14), which is the main thing you need to know. 

    The fact that she invited others to her home suggests that she was the head of her household and was perhaps a widow or of independent means- but this is adding context that may or may not be there. 

    You can be a “trad wife” if you choose but don’t think that is your only option as a Christian woman. You could be like Lydia and do great things in the ongoing story of God’s Kingdom. You could make great coffee for Jesus.

  • Food, clothing, and contentment

    Photo by Anna Pelzer on Unsplash

    Her profits will be put to the use of God-Aware, God-Serving-People, providing plenty of food and the best of clothing. (Isaiah 23:17-18 MSG)

    I came across the Isaiah 23 verse the other day and it reminded me of the verse in Timothy:

    “But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that” (1 Timothy 6:8). 

    Food and clothing features across the Bible as necessary for individual care but also as our acts of worship and provision for others. So we should always make sure that others have food and clothing too.  (Isaiah 58, Matthew 6, James 2). 

    I had a builder come to do a quote for me the other day at home. It seems the flue where the chimney for my log burner goes up has a little leak and there’s water getting into the ceiling. I just assumed it was heat damage above the fire but he seemed to think it was water. 

    Anyway, he said to me, “I can do a quick fix or I can do a proper fix. It’s not like this is your “forever home” is it?”

    I said, “Well it is actually I love this house. It is my forever home”. 

    He quickly ate his words. I knew he meant nothing by it but because I’m middle-aged and still have a few years to go (God willing) he assumed I would keep trading up to a fancier house. There’s always a better car or a better house or a better partner or a better kitchen, and we can get on the treadmill of always wanting more and never being content. 

    I live in a small town in the mountains where there are a lot of retired people and I hear them say things like “I’m not sure if we’ll stay here or move somewhere else…” 

    I’m thinking, “You’re 75! Isn’t it time you planted and had some contentment. How long do you think you’ve got?!”

    As I’ve blogged about before, I moved around a lot as a kid and into my working years and as much as I’m glad of all the experiences I had, moving around all the time is doing life on “hard mode”. Especially when you think about community and people and making friends. Upping sticks and moving all the time can lead to you becoming lonely and self-isolated and, well, discontent. See how the spiral works?

    But back to the food and clothing. I love both of these things but I also love buying gadgets on Amazon and cool design things on IKEA and books (not an ad by the way). I’ve asked God that my sneaker collection can be counted as “clothing” for the “best of clothing” part of the Isaiah verse. 

    As my finger hovers over the “add to cart” button online I need to remind myself that I have plenty of both good food and clothing and I don’t need to sign up to the worldliness of always craving more. The magpie who likes shiny things in me finds this difficult. Reaching a level of contentment in both the big and small things doesn’t mean living a miserly or frugal life as such. It just means the sugar hit of change can be replaced with the gratitude of contentment and and your mental bandwidth can be spent on other things. 

    Yes this is my forever home and I would like the permanent fix please Mr Builder. I would like to experience the daily contentment that Jesus offers and see all the beautiful food and best of clothing that the Lord’s hand has graciously provided for me. 

  • The courage to be ordinary

    Then the mother of Zebedee’s sons came to Jesus with her sons and knelt down to make a request of Him.

    “What do you want?” He inquired.

    She answered, “Declare that in Your kingdom one of these two sons of mine may sit at Your right hand, and the other at Your left.”

    “You do not know what you are asking,” Jesus replied. “Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?”“We can,” the brothers answered.

    “You will indeed drink My cup,”Jesus said. “But to sit at My right or left is not Mine to grant. These seats belong to those for whom My Father has prepared them.”

    When the ten heard about this, they were indignant with the two brothers. But Jesus called them aside and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their superiors exercise authority over them. It shall not be this way among you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave— just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:2–28)

    I’ve written before about the call of the ocean and how we are enamoured with the idea of some huge quest or calling that will give our lives purpose and meaning. NT Wright has done some interesting scholarship around this and how it is very much a modern construct that your religion gives you a life purpose. When I first became a Christian, it was all about “Purpose Driven Life” by Rick Warren and we did the worksheets and became obsessed with purpose and creating an overlay of meaning to the drudgery of our everyday lives. 

    We want to walk on the water like Peter in the Hillsong mega-hit “Oceans” and be led into some great future that lifts us out of the groans of exile. 

    I’ve just finished reading the sequel to “Courage to be Disliked” called “The Courage to Like Yourself” (Kishimi).It’s very Greek in its thinking and centres on Adlerian psychology. While it’s not Christian (and I think many of the views expressed are very humanist), it does make you think about your behaviours and why you are motivated to do the things you do. 

    The book talks a lot about “special-ness” and how we need to stand out and be rewarded through affirmation and external validation. For example, if you are a Pastor, you might be attracted to having a position and being recognised in the community and having your ideas communicated in a church. A Pastor is seen as being more “special” than an ordinary Joe Bloggs “sheep” or pew sitter. Now we know the Bible teaches us that we are children of God and made in the image of God but still we have parents that dream of their son becoming a Pastor or an Evangelist and having some role in the kingdom. We see this in the Mother’s Request scripture above. Why? Because it’s a special role. It has privilege and status and stand-out-ness that we humans are attracted to. It gives the individual purpose and meaning. 

    “The Courage to like Yourself” has a great chapter on “nothing days” and how we spend our nothing days when nothing much is happening and there are no valleys or mountain tops just—nothing. Now I think every day is important and God-appointed but I take his point–the boring drudgery will get you more than the Damascus Road experiences. A lot of people seek Revival meetings and spiritual experience because they find it difficult to walk out the everyday rhythms of simply walking with God. They’re simply bored.

    I’ve spent a lot of time with God trying to get Him to zap me with some great blueprint of purpose and a quest that will give me an interesting life like the patriarchs but am I just trying to be special? Am I OK with an ordinary life peeling the potatoes and walking my dog and chopping my firewood and reading a book or two? Am I OK with being a sheep and drinking eight glasses of water a day and going about my business? 

    It’s something that I’ve been thinking about and checking myself on. Am I doing something to be externally validated or because it’s pleasing to God?  Who am I trying to get affirmation or credit or praise from? Am I living for Jesus or other people?

    That’s a lot of questions and I’ve enjoyed thinking about it and I thought I’d share it with you. 

    “…and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you,” 1 Thessalonians 4:11

  • Loyal Mordecai

    The Triumph of Mordecai Sandro Botticelli c1475 National Gallery of Canada

    I love it when a character really comes to life for you and this trip through the Book of Esther, it had to be Mordecai. 

    I’ve been thinking about non-traditional relationships and how the modern church elevates the traditional and the nuclear family even though there are so many of us living and worshiping in different settings. 

    In New Zealand, where I’m from, 26% of households are couples with children. So you can roughly say three quarters of people live in a different type of household. 12% of people live in single person households and this jumps considerably over 65 years with one quarter of people living alone as they age;the majority being women.

    So how does that relate to Mordecai and Esther?

    Well the Old Testament tells us that Mordecai was Esther’s first cousin and that both of her parents died. 

    “Mordecai had a cousin named Hadassah, whom he had brought up because she had neither father nor mother. This young woman, who was also known as Esther, had a lovely figure and was beautiful. Mordecai had taken her as his own daughter when her father and mother died.” — (Esther 2:7)

    After Esther is taken into the king’s harem because of her beauty and God’s divine appointment (another non-traditional household but we won’t go there!) Mordecai waits outside the city gate for daily updates on Esther (Esther 2:19-22). He is concerned and cares for Esther, even though he is not her husband or her father. Fast forward and after Mordecai uncovers the assassination plot against King Xerxes, and mourns for the genocide plans by Haman against the Jewish people (Esther 4:1-2), Mordecai stays at the city gate and continues to advise Esther. 

    It is Mordecai’s integrity (refusing to bow to Haman) and his loyalty to Esther that keeps him in his God appointed position. It is Mordecai who makes the famous statement:

    “And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:13-14)

    He challenges Esther to use her royal position to save the Jewish people. 

    It’s the love and loyalty relationship between Mordecai and Esther that saves King Xerxes and the Jewish people. Not all the important relationships in our lives are obvious at first and it’s easy to take for granted people who are there for us as friends or relations or workmates. Look around you and notice who is being the trusted “Mordecai” to you in your life. People can show up for you in different ways and dynamics, even if something goes wrong such as Esther’s parents death or a divorce or a spouse passing. 

    Take a look around your church or workplace or social group and take note of the household types that people live in. Scratch the surface and you’ll find people’s family dynamics and living arrangements are maybe different than what you assume. 

    I encourage you to have a read of the Book of Esther (I’m enjoying The Message Bible at the moment). It’s a great read and keep an eye out for the man the king likes to honour … .Mordecai.

  • The awakening

    The word of the Lord came to me: “What do you see, Jeremiah?”

    “I see the branch of an almond tree,” I replied.

    The Lord said to me, “You have seen correctly, for I am watching to see that my word is fulfilled.” (Jeremiah 1:11-13).

    I was admiring a blossom tree in my neighbourhood yesterday. 

    I thought it must have been a fruit tree but turns out, it was an almond.  It got me thinking about Aaron’s budding staff in the Book of Numbers so I had a little scratch around to find out what it all means.

    So Moses spoke to the Israelites, and their leaders gave him twelve staffs, one for the leader of each of their ancestral tribes, and Aaron’s staff was among them. Moses placed the staffs before the Lord in the tent of the covenant law.

     The next day Moses entered the tent and saw that Aaron’s staff, which represented the tribe of Levi, had not only sprouted but had budded, blossomed and produced almonds (Numbers 17:6-9).

    The overarching picture of Jesus is the awakening or resurrection of Jesus and his chosen authority through the priestly line of Aaron in the Old Testament. The dead wood sprouts new life and produces almonds. And it gets better.

    The Hebrew word for almond tree is the same root of “watching” or “watchfulness” that we find in the Book of Jeremiah שׁקד (shaked or shaqed).

    In Jeremiah 1:11-12, God asks the young prophet what he sees. Jeremiah answers that he sees an almond branch (shaked). God replies, “You have seen well, for I am watching (shaked) over my word to perform it”

    It’s the end of winter, start of spring here in New Zealand so the almond tree is the first to “wake up” after the cold winter. The awakening (shaqed in Hebrew). 

    The imagery of ‘watching over’ or ‘presence of God’ is also in the Book of Exodus where the lampstands are being set up in the temple and created to look like almond branches with buds and flowers. Just like the almond blossoms I saw in my neighbourhood. (Exodus 25:31-37). 

    The Hebrew word for presence is panim (פָּנִים), which translates as “face” or face-to-face”so the presence of God, watching, watchfulness, face of God, all ties in together. 

    God is always watching over his Word to perform and fulfill it. I hope you think about that in your prayer time when you are standing on the promises of God or waiting on fulfilment. He is awake and watching.

    That’s just a cool little thing I found in the Bible yesterday. Awakening of the almonds in spring.

  • The Master of time

    lone tree in all seasons

    Then Daniel praised the God of heaven 20 and said:

    “Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever;
        wisdom and power are his.

    21 He changes times and seasons;
        he deposes kings and raises up others.
    He gives wisdom to the wise
        and knowledge to the discerning.

    22 He reveals deep and hidden things;
        he knows what lies in darkness,
        and light dwells with him. (Daniel 2:19-22)

    There’s a little kid, about six years old I would say, who comes over from next door to play with my new puppy Rita. 

    He used to just walk into my house. I’ve figured to lock the front door when I hear the school bus coming at 3pm to teach him it’s better to knock and not just wander into strange lady’s houses. 

    So he comes up the steps with his backpack on -which is about the same size as him- and- says he wants to play with Rita. 

    Ask, seek, knock. (Matthew 7:7)

    Childlike faith (Matthew 18:3)

    So far so good. 

    But here’s the thing. 

    When I’ve had enough and I can see that Rita has had enough, I’ll call “time” on the play session. I’m Rita’s Master. I’m the Master of the front lawn of my house and when I say playtime is over, well it’s over. 

    Christians struggle with this concept. Things end. Good things and holy things and God things end. They do. And we all stand around looking back at the answered prayer and the faith journey and the miracle provision and can’t quite figure out how and why the sands are shifting. 

    When the Master of your life, Jesus Christ, calls “time” on something in your life then it’s time to pack up your stuff and head onto the next thing or for some, begin the journey into Eternity. 

    Your body will decay (Acts 13:35).  Jobs and ministries will end. People will move away or die or stop liking you or just fade out. As my friend Edith says “there are no pockets in shrouds”- you can’t take anything with you into Eternity.

    Facing the end of things and surrendering to God’s timing is frightening when you maybe can’t see the path forward or don’t like what you see on the road ahead. If you’re like my six-year old neighbour you will quickly recover from the disappointment but as we age, this process gets harder. 

    So think about your life and the things you have your heart set on that maybe God has a different and better plan for. Things will not go how you think “for who can know the mind of the Lord” (1 Corinthians 2:16).  They won’t. 

    It’s important that when the Master Jesus calls “time” and  is moving forward, you are moving forward with Him. 

  • Dealing with discouragement

    4 Then the peoples around them set out to discourage the people of Judah and make them afraid to go on building.[5 They bribed officials to work against them and frustrate their plans during the entire reign of Cyrus king of Persia and down to the reign of Darius king of Persia.

    6 At the beginning of the reign of Xerxes, they lodged an accusation against the people of Judah and Jerusalem. (Ezra 4:4-6). 

    One of the main ways you will run aground in your Christian walk is through the slow, dripping and frustrating process of discouragement. 

    What begins with enthusiasm and motivation can get worn down into a drudgery as the external voices of criticism become your own thought life and wear you down. 

    I remember when I was working on a very large enterprise social media account for a tech company and there were rumours that we were about to lose the account to a smaller startup. 

    If you’ve ever been around large ad agencies you’ll know this means one thing…redundancies. One of the other women in my little work pod set out to discourage and discredit me so that I would be the first thrown off the life raft and she would keep her job and maybe be assigned to a large credit card company account. Let’s call her *Sarah. 

    Added to this, she was American with conditional work rights for Australia so if she lost her work sponsorship, she would have to leave Sydney and her Aussie boyfriend. There was a lot of motivation for her.

    The jibes went all day and usually when there was an audience to listen to her heckling:

    “Oh do they have computers in New Zealand?”

    “Do they have Spotify in New Zealand? I thought they just listened to Hobbit songs”

    “How many hours will you spend on Twitter today?”

    “Are you going to go home early again today?”

    I would laugh and chuckle along but the character questioning and constant making me feel “less than” was starting to discourage me. 

    It’s the same tactic that was used in the Book of Ezra that was written between 450 and 400 BC. The people of Judah and Jerusalem were rebuilding the temple after the exile. Other groups accused them of trying to evade taxes, set up their own dominion, and make war against the ruling king. Just like Sarah at the ad agency. 

    Frustrated the builders and the workers so they lose their motivation and give up. It’s the same tactic that the Enemy will use to get you out of position, stop you praying, stop you going to church, stop you enjoying the job and children and life that you prayed for. 

    So what’s the solution? Oil. You need oil for your lamp and this can only be purchased from Jesus while He is near. 

    25 “At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. 2 Five of them were foolish and five were wise. 3 The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. 4 The wise ones, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. (Matthew 25: 1-5)

    There’s a lot going on here but oil can represent the Holy Spirit and your personal devotional life with the Lord. The lamp is your outward ministry or confession (so this blog is my lamp for example) where you shine the light for others. 

    Without oil for your lamp (private devotional and prayer time and worship time with the Lord) your lamp will go out.  You need oil and lots of it for the journey.

    So if you find that you are getting discouraged in your Christian walk, go and get some oil off Jesus. Bring your empty vessel . That’s you. Note I said empty so surrendered you- prepared to listen and obey,  and buy from Him at no price. (Isaiah 55:1, Rev 3:18). 

    There will always be critics and haters and discouragers like Sarah in your world but don’t give them any real estate in your head. Keep building.

    For the record, I did get made redundant from the ad agency, I’ve written about that here, and so did Sarah. She got sent home to the US with no work visa. And yes, we do have computers in New Zealand, and Spotify 🙂

    *Not real names

  • The truth of Thomas

    The Doubting Thomas Caravaggio

    Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”

    Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:24-29)

    The main (perhaps the only) reason I believe in the person of Jesus as God in flesh (John 1:14) is because…it’s true. 

    People make up all sorts of stories about religion as a crutch and a political model. Then they go into religion creating wars (people create wars not religion) all because they are terrified that if they look into the claims of Jesus, they might actually be true. 

    Often people will say to me things like:

    “That’s nice that you have that”

    “It’s a comfort isn’t it?”

    “I don’t have that sort of imagination”

    “I’ve always believed in spiritual things but I’m not into organised religion.”

    When I take antibiotics to treat a skin infection it’s not because I need a crutch or a comfort or a mythological story. The empirical evidence is clear that antibiotics will heal my skin infection. Taking antibiotics doesn’t require a whole bunch of faith and it certainly doesn’t require make-believe. It doesn’t make me a weak person because I seek medical attention or ask a trained expert for help.  You could argue that it’s going into the unseen but the real gap is between the people who have looked into and understand how antibiotics work and those who haven’t. Anti-intellectualism is rampant online with everyone claiming to have the secret formula or the natural therapy or the myth-busting solution. Don’t be led astray. 

    Staying on the skin theme, Jesus invites Thomas in the Book of John to “reach out your hand and put in my side” (John 2-:27). You can’t touch a ghost or a spirit and here Jesus is demonstrating the resurrection body that proves he overcame death.  When Thomas doubted, he wasn’t told by Jesus to use his imagination or even to show faith; he was told to look at the evidence and then to believe based on the evidence. 

    Christians who need constant rollercoaster “presence of God” meetings are really wrestling with doubt like Thomas. The antidote for doubt is not more hyped up God-flavoured meetings. The answer is to sit quietly with God and examine the evidence. 

    Did the events of the Bible really happen? What if they are true and what does that mean for humans and my life here? If Jesus is who he says he is then there must be a heaven. I wonder if that’s a real place?

    Have the courage to look into the claims of the Bible and Jesus so that you’re not building your life on the wrong foundation. 

    The Bible is not a book of horoscopes, it is the living word of God that teaches and encourages us about God and who He is so we can get to know him more. During my search in my early 20’s I also found Lee Strobel’s “The Case for Christ” to be really enlightening as well as CS Lewis “Mere Christianity”, and many others. 

    Seek, explore, touch the scars. Look at the empirical evidence and it will open the door to a new life of freedom and truth.

  • What is my God assignment?

    dog on river trail

     “Go at once to Zarephath in the region of Sidon and stay there. I have directed a widow there to supply you with food.” So he went to Zarephath. When he came to the town gate, a widow was there gathering sticks. (1 Kings 17:7-16).

    If you’re like me, you may have spent a lot of time with Jesus asking “What is my assignment? What is my purpose? Why am I here?”

     It’s a huge topic but I’ll give you a little journey through my thinking. 

    First of all, I think of it in terms of macro and micro assignments. 

    So for me the macro assignment comes from Romans 1 in the The Message. This is the big picture that all Christians are called to do. You can rephrase this as ”magnify God” of “make Jesus known” or whatever but I like how it is written in the The Message:

    I, Paul, am a devoted slave of Jesus Christ on assignment, authorized as an apostle to proclaim God’s words and acts. I write this letter to all the believers in Rome, God’s friends. (Romans 1 1-2) The Message 

    Proclaim God’s words and acts. That’s my macro assignment. You will need to spend a lot of quiet time with the Lord seeking his direction around this but it’s well worth the wait because then you will have a clear picture about what you do and don’t spend your time on in this life that is full of distractions.

    Then there’s my micro assignments that happen throughout the day and arrive as daily bread and daily grace. 

    An example of this is the widow of Zarephath who was out gathering firewood. Both Elijah and the widow are given daily, micro assignments in this passage. The widow to feed Elijah and Elijah to go and stay at the region of Zarephath. 

    Last week I was out gathering kindling for my fire with my new rescue American Bull Terrier puppy, Rita. I was actually thinking about the widow of Zarephath as I was gathering my firewood (Paul also gathers firewood after his shipwreck in the book of Acts 28:3-5); a very common, everyday task to do. 

    My puppy Rita started jumping up and down excitedly on this man in his forties who was at the river fly fishing. I apologised and he said it was OK that he loves dogs…then he started to cry. He told me how last week, he had a medical emergency with his Labrador Retriever of 12 years and the dog didn’t make it and died at the after hours vets. He said: “It was the worst day of my life”. 

    Rita continued to slobber all over him and his tears turned to laughter. She was comforting him in his time of mourning for his best friend (Matthew 5:4). I told him that Rita is a Bull Terrier crossed with a Labrador Retriever and that’s why she likes him so much (an exaggeration –she likes everyone) but it put a smile on his face. 

    Maybe that was my (and Rita’s) micro God assignment for the day? To bring joy to someone going through a hard time of grief. 

    Maybe your micro God assignment is to cook a healthy dinner for yourself or bathe your kids or give someone a phone call or hand in a lost wallet. Who knows? And I guess we’ll never know until we get to Heaven how it all stitches together. Simple, everyday things make up 99% of your Christian walk so start looking for the mercies and miracles as you go about your day.  And stop beating up yourself that you’re not doing enough for God. God has macro and micro assignments for everyone.