christianity

Good Monday Evening 9-15-25

/ Carol Underhill / Leave a comment

Autumn is my favorite season. We call it “fall” around here. Living in the rural community in Michigan where we experience four very different seasons, there is a thrill in the air when the temperatures cool at night, the trees begin to show their colors, and pumpkins and squash are at all the roadside stands.

It’s too early to fret about blizzards and icestorms.

If the heat is unbearable during a few hours in the day, we understand that cooler weather is right around the corner.

Gardeners are reaping the last of their harvest and preserving it for the winter.

The season is changing.

This summer I struggled with my mental health. With a medication adjustment, counseling from a Christian therapist, and the support of family and friends, I have come through the hardest season I’ve experienced since my original nervous breakdown and hospitalization in 2003.

The past few days I’ve wrestled with depression. Earlier tonight I cried on the phone with a friend over things that happened 30 years ago. (Thankfully I go to an appointment with my therapist tomorrow.)

Now that evening has settled and the house is quiet, I am remembering and meditating on truths that I learned in the early days of Christian counseling.

One of the first things I learned about in therapy was that Scripture gives us rungs of truth to help us out of the pit of depression and despair.

Some of my truths:

  • God loves me.
  • God accepts me.
  • God forgives me.
  • I am a child of God.
  • He has a plan and a purpose for my life.
  • He has never left me nor forsaken me.
  • He is with me now.

Instead of looking back on the past and remembering failures and disappointments, tonight, I choose to look forward, not backwards. I’m not going that way. I’ve been there, and it’s time to put everything behind me, tie up my shoelaces, and step into the next season in my life.

The photo above was taken by a friend of mine. The Light of God is shining in this fall season, just as it is shining in my life.

Reaching for Light: Lessons from My Cat Ash

/ Carol Underhill / Leave a comment

Warning: If seeing a cat on top of a table offends you, you should not read this post.

However, if you own a cat, you know that sometimes, despite our valiant efforts to stop them, cats will jump up on tables, counters, shelves, every available space in your house at some point.

This is Ash. Born to a feral cat in our garage a few years ago, we at first called her the Tiny Terror. You can get an idea as to why when you look at this photo of her perched on top of our dining room table.
Although she is older and less active now, I absolutely love this photo.

As you can see, her paw is lifted high as if she is trying to touch the light above her.

Does that remind you of anything?

It reminds me of the words in the following Scripture verses:

Phillipians Chapter 3.

v. 10: I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death…

v. 12: Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 

v. 13-14: Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and reaching toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

And this verse from Colossians Chapter 3:

v. 1: If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God.

Like Ash is reaching for the light above her, I reach for the light that is in Christ above. My goal is to know God more and to be more like Jesus. To love like Jesus did in this dark and troubled world.

Before I can lift up my hands to him, I have to let go of the weight that is holding me down. The chains of shame, guilt, bitterness, all of those feelings we’ve held in our heart because of things that we’ve done, or that have been done to us.

We can lay our burdens down and lift up our hands in worship and praise.

This song has come to mind often the past few days, so I’m posting the link to the YouTube lyrics video below.

“In the Secret, in the Quiet Place.”

Embracing God’s Invitation: A Reflection on Isaiah 55

/ Carol Underhill / Leave a comment

To start the first Sunday of the year 2025 right, I opened the Bible to read some verses today. This passage came to mind from the Old Testament book of Isaiah. Isaiah 55.

What a blessed piece of Scripture!

It illustrates so beautifully what a relationship with God looks like.

Isaiah 55:3 – Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you…

In the words of this verse, God invites us into fellowship with Him.

Does the thought of a relationship with God make sense to you?

How can a mortal being, a human who was formed from dust and will return to dust after death, be connected to the Creator of their very being?

How can we have a relationship with an unseen God?

And why would we want a relationship with a God who often appears unjust – allowing good people to die too young and wickedness to rule on this earth?

God’s response to those questions?

Isaiah 55:8 – For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.

Who is this word, the Lord, referring to?

If you are unfamiliar with God as the Trinity – God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, this reference might be unclear to you. That is a topic for a different time.

Having heard the word all of my growing up years through now, I understand what the Lord means for me, personally, and that the Lord refers to Jesus, the Son of God. Yes, the same one whose birth we celebrated at Christmas. And whose resurrection we will celebrate in a few months.

Although I understand Jesus is Lord, I was unsure of a good way to explain it. I googled the term, and these are some key points I discovered:

Why is Jesus called, “Lord?”

Authority: Jesus has “all authority in heaven and on earth” (Matthew 28:18). He is the head of the church, the ruler over all creation, and the Lord of lords and King of kings (Col. 1:15-18; Rev. 3:14, 17:14). 

Obedience: Jesus humbled himself and obeyed God all the way to death on the cross. God exalted him for his obedience and gave him the supreme name in the heavens. 

Religious significance: In antiquity, “lord” was a courtesy title for social superiors, but it also had religious significance because kings were often considered divine beings 

Now we understand who the Lord is. Most if not all of you have heard the concepts, born again, becoming a Christian, accepting Jesus as our Savior. Those are ways to say that we acknowledge that we are sinners, that Jesus took our sins upon himself when he died on the cross, and that He is alive today. We repent of our sins and invite Jesus into our hearts. We ask Him to be our Savior.

We also acknowledge Jesus as Lord of our lives.

What does that phrase mean?

In the same Google search, the following was said:

Submission: By calling Jesus “Lord”, we submit to God’s rules and trust him to give us what is best.

Wait a minute!

Hold the phones! (Does that phrase make any sense with today’s technology? Probably not)

Calm down. The word Submission is not meant in a physical sense here. The word has many connotations, many of them negative. Those are topics for another day (And way above my limited education.)

Because the word Submission has so many meanings, it’s important to recognize the Biblical concept as described here:

Submission: By calling Jesus “Lord”, we submit to God’s rules and trust him to give us what is best.

Rules?

Who needs more rules, right?

We’ve been given rules to live by since we were tiny earthlings. First our parents (or caregivers), give us the rules for what we can eat, what we can touch, where we can go. Then in school, our teachers and other professionals add to those rules. Some may come us a surprise to us. (What, we’re not allowed to bite when we get angry? a child may discover after he bites a classmate.)

Did you know that you have the right to say “no”? God has given us what is called free will. He will allow us to do and say anything, but sometimes there might be consequences for our actions and words. Natural consequences, when what we do causes harm, or punishment from the authorities.

From a very early age, we learn that we can say “no” to authority. Our free will is exercised from the time a parent says to a toddler, “don’t touch that” and the toddler looks the parent right in the eye, and touches “that.”

In general, by the time we are an adult, we are tired of following everyone else’s rules. We want to be our own authority, the boss of our own life. “No one is going to tell me what to say or do.” (Hello, do you have a boss on your job? Big eye-opener.)

God’s given us free will, which means we do not have to accept Him as our Lord and Savior. We can say “no” to God’s invitation to call on Him.

When you feel the tug on your heart to make Jesus the Lord of your life, you don’t have to respond to it. You can ignore those nudges and live life your own way. But it’s clear from the verses above that God calls us to Him.

This brings us back to my original question. Why would we want a God who often appears unjust – allowing good people to die to young and wickedness to rule on this earth?

There are many arguments for why God is not a good God. Some would say He is not the God of love that He portrays Himself as in the Bible. But that’s not the way I believe.

So how can you know for sure that God is who the Bible says He is?

There’s this little thing called faith. It might only be as small as a mustard seed, but that bit of faith is all you need to recognize who God truly is. The Creator, the Heavenly Father, the God of grace and mercy. When you feel the nudge on your heart to make Jesus your Lord, you are given enough faith to say Yes. Faith is believing in the unseen God.

A relationship with God grows from that tiny seed of faith. Every time you read or hear the Bible preached, you learn more about the love and Grace of God. For me, I hear it in the words of every song I listen to and try to sing. I love both the old hymns with their antiquated, poetic words, and the contemporary songs we worship with today. (I’ve been known to have a song for every mood. My playlists will confirm that.)

Even with faith, we still question why God allows terrible tragedies and sins to happen. I would be lying if I said if I always understood the why’s.

I, for one, will never totally comprehend why my husband died in a tragic work accident in the prime of his life. Why God would leave my children fatherless and me without the rock of support that he was for me.

Isaiah 55:9: For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts,” (declares the Lord).

Do I trust that God has a purpose in losing Pat? Our loss was Heaven’s gain, and Pat received his eternal reward much earlier than most of his family and friends.

The Bible says in Romans 8:

Romans 8:28 – And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 

For me, good things have come out of my tragic loss. I have a deeper faith in God than I did in August 2010. God has shown himself to be a loving Father. He has sent people to help me and given me a clearer understanding of what His will is in my life. He has proven to me that He is a God of grace and second chances.

Could he have done this another way, other than with Pat’s death?

Yes, because He is God.

But again, His ways are higher than my ways, His thoughts higher than my thoughts.

Just like I couldn’t envision Pat’s death at an early age, I can’t see the big picture of how my life is going to turn out. Like the underside of one of my mom’s embroidered artpieces, what I see down here on earth are snarls that don’t make any sense sometimes.

Yet I trust God with all my heart, with all the faith that is within me, that when I get to the other side, when I pass from this life and enter heaven, I will see the whole picture, and it will be beautiful.

Won’t you trust Him today to be the Lord of your life?

God gives you this invitation in Isaiah 55:6

Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon Him while He is near.