Happy Mother's Day 2019

A few years ago for french mother’s day/the day before our anniversary, Dave wrote me a simple, sweet note declaring a happy future Mother’s Day to me. 

This was before we knew that it wouldn’t just be an “okay now we’re ready and *voila* here is our pregnancy” story for us. 

The road to this year, my first Mother’s Day with a living being to whom I am mom, has been longer than some people’s and far shorter than others’. 

***(Life note: comparison gets us nowhere healthy, whether or not the comparison has us come out “on top”! The story being written with my life will not be the same as those around me because our Creator knits us individually and uniquely within our mothers’ wombs, and with purposes equally individual and unique. We’re not the product of a cookie cutter or a stack of color-by-numbers that vary a little but are basically the same - we’re the one-of-a-kind masterpieces of a God whose creativity knows no bounds. Let’s release the burden of unmerited pride and unwarranted discontent that come with comparison, shall we?)***

As our little man who’s made me a mom and I were showered with love yesterday (while his dad & friends were awesomely checking off physical to-do list tasks in and around home!), I was overwhelmed by such gratitude. For this season we’re living, and also those which came before. And for the people surrounding us, near and far. 

Mothering is not limited to those who have little (or grown) ones who know them as “mom.” I do not take for granted my precious mom and having her still with me. I do not take for granted having gained a mother-in-law whom I love. And I do not take for granted all of the other women who have mothered me throughout my life, sometimes for seasons, sometimes for the long haul. 

And I also feel the gratitude of the lessons I’ve been privileged to learn when God has put people in my story and asked me to mother them for a time. My son will have a far different experience with me as a mother because of each of my students, because of each of our nieces and nephews. 

What a day to celebrate! To celebrate the gift and responsibility of speaking life and love and maturity into the lives around us, to calling up and out the best in those whose stories intersect with ours, to protecting and nurturing while guiding and challenging.  

That is mothering. 

Happy Mother’s Day to each of you, whatever this looks like in your life 

Living Situated

Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. 

John 13:3-5


This image of Jesus washing his disciples' feet is often talked about and understandably so. It came at a pivotal moment in his ministry, at a pivotal moment in his last meal with his closest companions, and leads to a direct exhortation by Jesus for those who follow him to do likewise.

Despite the familiarity of the passage and the scene, I was newly struck by something when I read these words yesterday. I was struck, not by the actions that he did, but by the description of what was on his mind as he rose to do them.

Jesus rose from his seat in order to give a powerful image of servant leadership, a radical picture of the topsy-turvy nature of the Kingdom he was ushering into the world. But his mind wasn't on the example he was giving, the leader that he was, the men looking up to him.

His mind was on his status before God the Father.

His mind was centered on the knowledge of what God was doing through the situation at present and to come.

His mind was founded on the knowledge of where he had come from and where he was going.

His mind was grounded in the surety of his place in the heart, hands, and plan of God.

He was living fully situated and confident in the purpose behind what he was doing. It's why he could sit at a table and speak calmly and clearly into the eyes of Judas, knowing that the betrayal was already in motion. It's why he could explain to Peter without judgment that fear of man was going to outweigh love for Jesus in just a few hours' time. It's why he could heal with care and without malice a centurion sent to arrest him. It's why he could stand silently in the face of his accusers without rising to his own defense with the Truth.

Because he was living, not for the reaction of the people around him, not for the labels that they would put on him, not for seeking to define himself by who he was in their eyes. He was living fully situated and confident in his identity as the Son of God. He knew who he was in the eyes of the Father and the love and the hatred of the world would not change it.

I realized, reading these words yesterday, that this is a pivotal lesson for me. When I look to my Savior for how to treat others and see him washing their feet - it is the situated heart behind this action that must be my example, not just the situated body. My attempts at servant leadership are nothing if they are not born of my heart and mind situated securely in my identity as a daughter of God.

All his assurance was in his place in the eyes of his Abba Father. Help me live this way, Lord.