The Plumbline

Laughter can conceal a heavy heart, but when the laughter ends, the grief remains. (Proverbs 14:13 NLT) I have been around some pretty jovial individuals and wondered how they could be so genuinely happy in the midst of great times of struggle in their lives. There seemed to be a fountain of joy that came from deep within that just kept on giving. I have also been around individuals who are laughing, making light of circumstances, but who do not have any genuine joy in the moment. Their laughter does little more than conceal their true feelings. They are experiencing grief, sorrow, and pain - yet they mask it with laughter and lighthearted joking. What is the saddest part of it all is that when their laughter ends, they still have all that pain. It has taken me years to learn to 'read' the emotions of those around me. Learning to discern the 'true heart' of an individual is not something to be taken for granted. When God reveals something about the struggle another per...

Laughter can conceal a heavy heart, but when the laughter ends, the grief remains. (Proverbs 14:13) Nicolas Chamfort said, "The most wasted day of all is that on which we have not laughed." Laughter is not always from a cheerful and giddy heart. There are many times it conceals a hurt much deeper than the naked eye can see. There is little mirth in fear, but someone who is fearful can giggle or laugh in their nervousness over the situation. Sometimes there is very little 'amusement' in what is going on in someone's life, but there will be laughter instead of tears. We may never know what a laugh really conceals, but when we are open to being led by the Holy Spirit, the opportunity to help someone past their fear, grief, or inner pain may reveal itself. What makes a heart heavy? We all realize loss can weigh a heart down, sometimes for a long time. There are times when our heart is made heavy because of what we are feeling for others - experiencing just a bit of t...

Deal with your pain or it will deal with you. We have to actually 'process' our pain if we are to ever get beyond our pain. Pain comes in many forms - physical, emotional, relational, and even spiritual. We cannot ignore pain, but we try to push it down over and over again rather than taking it to God or seeking help for it. We hope that ignoring it will help us somehow, but it just brings repeated torment to us. Distress that drives us to God does that. It turns us around. It gets us back in the way of salvation. We never regret that kind of pain. But those who let distress drive them away from God are full of regrets, end up on a deathbed of regrets. (2 Corinthians 7:10) God's plan is for the pain to drive us closer to him - not further away. When we withdraw from the pain and try to bury it, we are allowing pain to drive us away from God. As much as God wants to be worshipped, he also wants us to be open with him in ALL our needs. Every weakness we have, he stands ready ...

Is there anyplace I can go to avoid your Spirit? to be out of your sight? If I climb to the sky, you’re there! If I go underground, you’re there! If I flew on morning’s wings to the far western horizon, you’d find me in a minute—you’re already there waiting! Then I said to myself, “Oh, he even sees me in the dark! At night I’m immersed in the light!” It’s a fact: darkness isn’t dark to you; night and day, darkness and light, they’re all the same to you. (Psalm 139:7-12) Useless. Unsatisfactory. Not measuring up. One of the "darkest" places to be is in the place of rejection. There we find the individual actually believing they have no purpose in our lives - discarded by those who should accept them, oftentimes refusing to accept them and what they bring into their lives. One of the toughest things to learn to do with people who treat others as though they are "rejects" in this earth is to NOT reject them because of their "actions" of intolerance or super...

Do we somehow think we can go through life without any pain at all? There are multiple forms of pain, but the worst is always going to be described as the kind that will not let up. It just comes at you, and at you, and never relents. It could be emotional pain, physical pain, or even spiritual pain. There are all forms of pain - but one thing remains consistent with all forms of pain - we don't always have a right perspective about it. Pain overshadows all we can see and think - it just clouds whatever else is around us at the moment. Get a blister on your toe and see how long you focus on your foot, shoes you will put on them, and when it will finally heal. Twist your back lifting something the wrong way and see how long you focus on how you will rise, sit, lie, and reach without getting those twinges that send shooting pains throughout your torso. We focus on the pain, what we belief will give us relief from it, and even what we can 'put on it' to mask the constant naggi...

Laughter cannot mask a heavy heart. When the laughter ends, the grief remains. (Proverbs 14:13) Erma Bombeck once reminded us, " There is a thin line that separates laughter and pain, comedy and tragedy, humor and hurt ." This "thin line" as she calls it is really very concerning - for if it is crossed, the laughter can certainly turn to pain quite quickly. We never really know what is just beneath the surface in the lives of those we meet with each and every day. We might think we really know them, but in truth, there can be very little 'space' between immense sorrow and loneliness on the inside from what we see displayed as confidence and friendliness on the outside. We need to become skilled 'readers' of the human condition. We might not always recognize just how close to grief or sorrow a man's heart may be until we cross the line into that 'finite space' between the happier self displayed on the surface and the hurting self hidde...

Have you ever watched a javelina - a hog well-adapted for the Sonoran Desert region? Catch them wandering into your yard for a quick feast on your flora or fauna and you will be surprised by how quickly they just 'freeze' in place. In the desert, their brown color makes them blend in as though they were a rock just standing there. In the greenery of your grassy yard, that just looks dumb! They freeze because they are hoping to avoid their predators - they want to survive! Fear can be a pretty disabling thing in the life of animals, but in the life of a human being, it can cripple. Whenever fear is allowed to be the controlling influence, we become dead in the water. Fear is defined as a distressing emotion - fueled by impending danger, evil or pain - whether the threat is real or imagined. There are times that our fears are ill-founded - more "made up" than real - but we treat them as real, just at the javelina might do when being caught in the yard by someone who is ...

If I had not found joy in your teachings,   my suffering would have destroyed me.  I will never forget your commands,   because through them you gave me new life. (Psalm 119:92-93 ERV) We probably can all look back at points in our lives when we thought whatever it was we were going through just about "destroyed" us. Our joy was gone, energies depleted, and wherewithal to make any new decisions totally evaded us. In short, we were "suffering" - either by our own doing, or that of another, and it just about "undid" us. Our rescue in those times is often found in the simplest of things, but often the most overlooked when we find ourselves in the midst of tremendous suffering - his Word. It is by his Word all things were created - it is by his Word that all things are sustained - it is also by his Word all things are renewed and made whole again! David sums it all up for us by reminding us that everything has its limits - even those things that seem t...

'Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops What if Your healing comes through tears What if a thousand sleepless nights Are what it takes to know You're near What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise... (Chorus: Blessings by Laura Story) So many of God's greatest blessings come to us in the form of some "disguise" - they aren't realized as blessings until somewhere down the road when we look back and see all God has done to coordinate those steps up to where we are at that moment of "realized blessing". There are times when God's greatest blessings seem a little "counter-intuitive" - they just don't "add up" at first. In time, we see the bigger picture, but along the way the road is littered with hardship, tears, hurts, and trust issues. Could it just be the purpose of every "bigger blessing" coming in that disguised way may just be to really clarify our true place of tr...

Have you ever stopped to consider the process of healing? It is a process, to say the least, for no healing ever comes instantaneously. In fact, if it does, that is called a miracle! Healing begins the moment there is an injury. There is no need of healing until the injury has occurred, right? The moment you cut yourself, the body sets into motion processes designed to "wall off" the bleeding. Even the pain you feel is intended to get you to pay attention to the cut - to guard it from further "insult" such as dirt. As those cells begin to mend, there is much "debris" which must be removed in order for the cells to knit back together. They never go back together in quite the same way, though. In fact, they leave noticeable signs there has been an injury. Maybe this is to remind us that injury is possible when we do something that same way again, or maybe it is to remind us of the greatness of our Creator in healing what no one else could mend! Purify me f...

Those who love discipline love knowledge, but fools hate any kind of correction. The Eternal prefers those who do good, but He condemns those who plot evil. Doing what is wrong keeps everyone off balance and insecure, but those who do right will never be uprooted. (Proverbs 12:1-3 VOICE) Okay, getting totally "real" with you today I'd have to admit enduring discipline is the furthest thing from "fun" and "enjoyable"! In fact, it is downright hard and very humbling. Without it I'd never have grown, nor would I have realized some of the tremendous things I have come to know and appreciate. Paul tells us to count it all joy when we encounter these rough places, because they will produce things like endurance, solid character, and patience. I am not sure why God uses these tough places as times to create such awesome stuff within us, but it may just be that tough skin of pride we have that just cannot be permeated otherwise! Fools hate any kind of c...