Letter Forty-Two

Letter Forty-Two

No Matter Where You Go, I Go

Dear Child:

Don’t hide. Don’t run away.

Draw near to me. I am Abba.

I want companionship with you more than perfection.

You are traveling a rough and dangerous road. I am with you. Nothing is too dangerous, nor is any path too rough for me to walk if that is where you choose to go. I am with you wherever you go.

I’m reaching for you. I’m searching for you.

I can cross any boundary to get to you. Even in the dark and foreboding places in life, I am there.

I am reaching out my hand. Will you take it?

Come to Papa God.

P Michael Biggs

~Hope ~ Encouragement ~Inspiration

Letter Forty-From God

 Letter Forty – From God

Dear Child:

I don’t flinch at your ugliness and the dirty rags of your life.
I don’t turn my head from the stench of your past rottenness.

I look beyond all of that and offer you my hand, my heart.

Others may flinch at the thought of your past life, but not me. I don’t flinch. I look beyond all that and see my child in need of his or her Abba God.

I am yours. Rest easy with that.

I am as personal to you as I am to anyone else on this earth. I long to be intimate with you right where you are, misery and all. I’m not turning my head. I’m not pulling back my hand. 

I’m opening my heart to you, for I love you!

Don’t lock the door.
Don’t keep me out.
Open yourself to my presence, my forgiveness, and my cleansing touch.

I am God. I want you, just as you are. 

Your God,

P Michael Biggs 

Hope~Encouragement~Inspiration

Letter Thirty-Seven "Do I Matter?

THIRTY-SEVEN

Do I Matter?

Dear Child:

I hear your cry. You wonder if anybody cares. You feel empty, abandoned, and alone.

You cry out, “Do I Matter?”

Let me wrap you in my arms. Listen as I whisper words of calm. “Yes, you matter. I am God, and you matter to me.”

I know where you are every moment of the day. I never lose track of you.

I never take my eye off you.

“Do I matter” you ask?
My precious child, yes, you do matter.

As long as you take a breath you shall matter. Your significance is not diminished simply because of your age. You are, therefore you are significant.

You are someone important. 

Someone of value

Someone of worth
Someone with skills and a destiny

Someone worth knowing
You are valued simply because you exist. “DO I MATTER” you ask?

Yes, you certainly do. You matter!!! 

Your God of Compassion 

Thoughts on Prayer

 Thoughts on Prayer

And what about prayer?

What is prayer all about and how do you do it properly?

If you’ve ever tried to pray, perhaps you have your stories of struggle, of staying awake until the “amen” and of making a coherent string of thoughts in prayer so that God is pleased with you, and you get a gold star for the day because of your prayer.

Hmmm. Consider this:

“Just patch a few words together 

and don’t try to make them elaborate. 

This isn’t a contest but a doorway 

into thanks, and a silence in which 

another voice may speak.” 

Mary Oliver – Poet

Mary was not a theologian nor a biblical scholar. She was in touch with life in her own way as a poet and writer.

However, I think she was onto something with this quote.

Praying is not a contest to see who can pray the most eloquent thoughts, or the most beautiful phrases or string together the perfect synonyms for creative thoughts on God.

Praying is based on sincerity, humility, and intent of the heart.
I love Mary’s analogy of prayer as a “doorway into thanks”. Simple thanks.

Ann Lamont wrote once that “‘Help’ just might be one of the most profound prayers ever uttered.

When the burdens are heaviest, when the way is darkest, when the mind is cluttered with too much information or not enough of a sense of God, then perhaps “help” is the most appropriate prayer we can pray.

I’ve used that one a few times in my life.

Perhaps you have too.

I have some mulling to do on Mary’s last thought.

“And a silence in which another voice may speak.”

Silence. Isn’t that one of the eight deadly sins of the church? We can’t sit still and silent for too long for fear that half of the congregation will fall asleep.

Ah, what if we use that silence as a true tuning in time? What if God wanted to say something to us and was waiting for us to simmer down, hush up, and quite yakking long enough to whisper an important thought into our minds?

Now, wouldn’t that be something.
That’s the kind of praying to which I can relate. It goes like this.

Come in, with no agenda, no prepared speech (prayer) and no worries about what I am going to say and no fear that I’ll say the wrong thing or leave out someone or something for which I should pray. Whew.

And then, in the stillness, the quiet quieter than quiet, what if God whispered to you and me? What if He started with something simple like, “Hey you. I love you.”

That would really be something.

A real, honest-to-goodness God-moment.

P Michael Biggs

Hope~Encouragement~Inspiration

When the Heart is Heavy, Then What?

When the Heart Is Heavy, Then What? 

I’m going to talk specifically to those of us who currently have or have had what we might call “A Heavy Heart”. Heavy hearts ain’t no fun, as we used to say in the hills of Tennessee.

I’ve often not known what to do in the middle of my heavy heart moments. Have you? Perhaps you’re going through one of those times even now, in this moment of reading this.

Heavy Heart times are caused by those circumstances in life that just about crush us to death. The load is so heavy, the burden is so awesomely great, and the issue looms very large. We find ourselves scratching our head, wringing our hands, and wondering if God is anywhere nearby and does He hear and see you and me, and even care about what in the world is happening right now, this very minute.

And then some well-meaning spiritual super-power comes along and says, “well, Honey, you just need to pray more.”

Pray? I can’t even tie my shoes for the weight of this “thing” I’m carrying. “Pray” you say. 

Here’s the thing.

When the heart is so heavy, and the weight of the world seems to be resting on your shoulders in the awful times of life, maybe, perhaps, all you and I can utter is HELP! Now I used all caps and an explanation mark, but sometimes it comes out “help”. Or perhaps

H. E. L. P. !

And do you know what? God hears that kind of prayer too. Oh my. Yes indeed.

I’ve prayed that prayer before. Once someone near to me relapsed on a drug addiction that I thought was well behind her. I was so unprepared for that experience. I didn’t know what to do nor where to turn. All I could utter was “help”. (Lower case intended)

Maybe today is the day you pray the most acceptable prayer ever uttered. It’s nothing fancy. It’s not long. It’s not profound. It’s not eloquent. It’s a great cry for the God of the universe to come down and touch you in some unique way that only you need in that moment. It is a miracle prayer of one word, and this one-word-prayer gets attention.

Is your life a train wreck?
Have you made some really horrible decisions?
Is your past about to catch up with you?
Are you in a despicable and deplorably situation and you don’t know which way to turn?

This I know. A prayer like “Help” spoken in great moments of desperation and with a sincere heart gets attention from God himself.

He already knows what you did, or said, and what you are doing or have done. He wants so much for you to turn around and come to Him. He’s listening for your call.

I believe that with my whole heart.

Ann Lamott said this in here book, Help Thanks Wow:

“Prayer means that, in some unique way,

we believe we’re invited into a relationship

with someone who hears us when we speak in silence.”

So, step right up. You don’t have to get dressed up, put on your shoes, wear a necktie or a string of pearls, or even smell pretty. Just approach and say the words as you turn toward God: HELP! Help. help.

I don’t know in what form God will answer, but in time He will answer. It may be through another person, or it may be an idea that pops into your own mind, but God hears.

God hears.

P Michael Biggs

Internet Church Blogsite

Hope~Encouragement~Inspiration

Is God Mad at Me?

 Is God Mad at Me?

What a strong question that one is. Does God get mad at us? Does He write us off after some slight mistake, sin, forgetfulness moment, or if our check book gets out of balance?

Let me tell you about a conversation I had.

Cindy and I were talking one day at work, and she was complimenting me on some of my blogs that she had read recently. I casually asked her what she thought of God, and here is what she said.

“Oh, He’s kind, and loving, and forgiving, and my best friend.”

I stopped her at that point and said, “That’s all well and good, but what do you really think about God?’

She paused a moment and then said, “I think God is mad at me.”
Oh, my. What a statement. I asked questions and she filled in the blanks.

“One day, I was cooking spaghetti and had a large skillet of spaghetti sauce simmering on the stove. My ten-year-old daughter, Jenny, came into the kitchen and grabbed the handle of the skillet and poured the spaghetti all over her body. She screamed in pain and blisters began popping out all over her body. God must hate me for that to have happened to Jenny.”

I sent up one of those quick prayers for immediate help and wisdom and then answered.

“Oh, Cindy. No, no, no. God is not mad at you. Jenny was an innocent girl, whose curiosity got in the way, and she just happened to pull the handle of the pot down upon her body. God didn’t make her do that, and God is certainly not mad at you. Oh, please believe me. I could never in my wildest imagination picture a God who would do something like that.”

We can assign to God some strange and interesting acts, but is God really at fault?

The simple answer ... we humans have a will, and we get to make choices. That is our greatest power, and one that God will never take from us nor override in our lives. We Chose!

The great news is this: God is not mad at us.

God is not an ogre. He is not looking for us to step out of line just even a little bit so He can zap us. And He’s not looking for the smallest of reasons to put us in time out.

The most famous Bible verse of all time is John 3:16.

“For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only son, And whoever believes in Him shall be saved.”

God loves the world. That means any evil person you might name, your contrary neighbor who puts his garbage can in the middle of your driveway, that customer that is always snarly and never smiles, and your curious daughter who just might happen to pull a pot of hot spaghetti sauce onto her head. God loves us! A reminder ... God never promises to keep bad things from happening to us, but He does promise to be with us in the middle of the bad things.

Remember what I wrote 2 paragraphs above? God is not an ogre. I want to borrow this thought from Ann Lamont and her great little book Help ... Thanks ... Wow.

“Prayer is talking to something or anything with which we seek union, even if we are bitter or insane or broken. (In fact, these are probably the best possible conditions under which to pray.) Prayer is taking a chance that against all odds and past history, we are loved and chosen, and do not have to get it together before we show up. The opposite may be true. We may not be able to get it together until after we show up in such miserable shape.

You see, in my 73 years of living, I have rarely had it all together. I’ve had moments of brilliant spiritual living, and I’ve had the dogdays and months and perhaps years of missing the mark, falling short, stepping out of line,

and wanting my own way. And all through the good and the bad, God never stopped loving me. He never, to my knowledge, got mad at me, and he never caused a bad thing to happen to bring me back into line.

I’ve caused bad things to happen because of my choices. I’ve acted foolishly, said the wrong thing at the wrong time, and treated others with less than grace and love, but never has God gotten mad at me.

I’ve disappointed God. Oh my, don’t let me count the ways.

And His love keeps on flowing down to me. His grace and mercy are ever present and abundant in my life.

Are you wanting to blame somebody for the bad that happens in your life? Don’t blame God. Blame Joe, my neighbor. He’s not doing anything worthwhile. He cusses, he goes to places he shouldn’t, and he drives like a mad man. Blame Joe. He’s not doing anything.

Look at this amazing verse:

“See what great love the Father has lavished on us; that we should
be called children of God! And that is what we are!
I John 3:1

Again, the question: Is God mad at me? Not in a million years.
But He does love you with furious love!

Internet Church
P Michael Biggs Hope~Encouragement~Inspiration

Letter Twenty~Seven from God

TWENTY-SEVEN

My Dear Child:

I know you.

I know your name.

I know your strengths.

I know your weaknesses.

I have even counted the hairs on your head.  That is how much I love you. 

I have my eyes on you.  I note your failures, your disasters, your joys and your successes.

I know your name.  I have called you by name.  You are known to me. 

See that lady sitting on that curb over there?  She is Crazy Sally.  I know her name too.  She doesn’t look like much to you perhaps, but to me she is a choice individual.  On the day she was born, I said “Yes”, just as I did on the day you were born.

She has made some unfortunate choices, and now she is less than she could be, but she is still mine.  I still know her name. 

It’s the same with you.  Shall we list your mistakes?  I can’t do that, because when you bring them to me, I forgive and forget.  Remember, I remove your past mistakes from you as far as the east is from the west.  That is a promise.

So, let’s concentrate on today.  What is your greatest need?

God

One-Hundred Letters from God,

Offering Hope~Encourgement~Inspiration

P Michael Biggs

From my book – The Letters

Letter Twenty~Six From God

TWENTY-SIX

Dear Child:

The world says “Look like this.  Wear these clothes.  Eat our food.  Listen to this music.  Follow our dogma.  Think these thoughts.  

   Do more.  

      Be more.  

         Achieve more.  

           Earn more.  

              Spend more.  

                Work more. 

Is that how you feel?  I grow weary sometimes of how your world has twisted and misinterpreted my principles. 

I want you to focus on just three words.

YOU ARE ENOUGH!

I created you in my image.  I made you with a blueprint for successful living.  I’ve put talents inside of you that are just below the surface and simply require a bit of exploring and discovery.

You are enough. 

You don’t have to wear the latest fashions.

You don’t have to go to the right school.

You don’t have to believe strange doctrines.

You don’t even have to eat sushi if you don’t want to.

I want you to accept that I made you.  I chose you and put qualities that are unique to you to help you succeed.  You have enough to do what your heart longs to do. 

Be you.

You are enough. 

Your Personal God!

One-Hundred Letters from God,

Offering Hope~Encouragement~Inspiration

P Michael Biggs

From my book – The Letters

Letter Number Fourteen ~ a Letter from God

Letter Number FOURTEEN

Dear Child:

You’re disheartened.  And why?  Because you think nobody cares about you, even me. 

My child.  Listen to me with your heart. 

On the day you were born I said “YES!”  I said yes to you, to your life, to your future.  I have such grand plans for you.  If only you could see what I have in store for you. 

So, wallow around in your misery if you choose, but if you could take a walk with me and we could just talk, you would soon see what I mean.

Do you know that I notice the tiniest sparrow that falls to the ground?

Did you witness the sunset last evening?

Did you see the sun rise today?  Think of the millions of receptors that I have put within your eyes just to enjoy the beauty all around you.

Listen? 

Can you hear that seagull calling out to his friends?  Can you hear the airplane overhead?  I’ve put over twenty-thousand fibers in each of your ears simply so that you can distinguish sounds of multiple varieties. 

Listen to the children playing nearby.  You can hear them because of the amazing creation that you are.

You are my finest creation. 

I could go on, but you get the point.

I created you, you are mine and I love you more than your mind can take in. 

I am your creator.  You are my greatest miracle. 

Will you say “yes” to me?

Your God.

  

One-Hundred Letters from God,

Offering Hope~Encourgement~Inspiration

P Michael Biggs

From my book – The Letters

Letter Number Thirteen ~ A Letter from God

Letter Number Thirteen

Dear Child:

I know you said the words, but I just can’t leave you alone.  I love you. 

Oh, you think you stopped me short back then when you said “Leave me alone.  I don’t trust you.  How could you let this happen in my life?”

I heard you.  I heard your bitterness, your confusion, your distrust.  I heard it all. 

But I can’t walk away.  I have too much invested in you to just let your drift along.

I’ve reached out for you in a thousand ways.  I’m still reaching. 

When you are ready, just call out. 

Just say, “Hi, it’s me.  I’d like to talk again.”

And I’m there, by your side, offering myself in new and wholesome ways. 

Do you remember what I once said?  “I will never leave you or forsake you.” 

It’s still true. 

Even when you don’t want me near, I’m near.

Even when you are angry, I hold your tears.

Even when you run so fast and so far, I am able to keep up with you.  You are never out of my care, or out of my sight.

I promise I will never leave.

Never!

Your Ever-loving God!

One-Hundred Letters from God,

Offering Hope~Encourgement~Inspiration

P Michael Biggs

From my book – The Letters