Posted on by Lori Cartmell

Amplify the Signal

Image from Pixabay.

Does your dog or cat come running when it hears the can opener?

Does your husband?

I guess we all tune in to sounds that are important to us, don’t we?

Parents are able to zero in on the specific cry of their child at a playground. They’re able to filter out the sounds of other children to focus on their own.

If you drop some coins on the floor, everyone’s head swivels toward the sound. Our ears strain out the other ambient noises in the environment and prick up at the sound of money tinkling.

Obviously, our family and money are things that are important to us.

But what about the messages that God is trying to send us?

Do we tune in to those with as much attention?

Or are there so many distractions in our lives that we’re unable to focus on the character of God and His love for us?

Maybe we need to adjust the signal-to-noise ratio in our lives.

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Posted on by Lori Cartmell

Master of Deception

Peacock butterfly on a flower. Image from Pixabay

If you’re out for a walk in nature, you may not realize how much you’re being tricked.

You may think you’ve got an accurate picture of the natural world around you, but in many cases, you’re being fooled.

That’s because some creatures are masters of deception.

Stick insects camouflage themselves by mimicking the shape and colour of twigs on a tree. Moths may blend in so well with the bark pattern of the tree they’re resting on that you’d never know they’re there.

The killdeer bird fakes having a broken wing to make a predator think she will be an easy meal, thereby luring it away from the vulnerable chicks in her nest before she flies away.

Even beautiful butterflies get in on the act of trickery. Some species have markings on their wings that look like huge eyes. The eyespots may discourage a predator from attacking by making it think the insect is in fact a much larger animal.

These false eyes may serve another purpose: to encourage an attacker to aim for the wrong target. The markings deflect an attack away from the butterfly’s head or body to parts less vital for survival, such as its wing margins. By using this deception, the butterfly outwits its enemies and is able to fly away with a torn wing at worst, but otherwise relatively unscathed.

Butterflies aren’t the only creatures to use misdirection in this way:

Satan does, too, and we need to be wise to his tactics. We may not realize how much he’s tricking us.

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Posted on by Lori Cartmell

Break Your Four-Minute Mile

Marathoner Eliud Kipchoge
Photo by Denis Barthel on Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 4.0 International

A few years ago in Vienna, Kenyan Olympic champion Eluid Kipchoge made history.

He became the first person to run a marathon in under two hours, a feat that had long seemed impossible.

After running the 26.2 mile course in one hour, 59 minutes and 40 seconds, Kipchoge drew comparisons to Sir Roger Bannister. Bannister was the Briton who in 1954 became the first person to run one mile in under four minutes, an achievement also once thought to be unattainable.

Kipchoge said something very significant after his race: “I expect more people all over the world to run under two hours after today.”

Why did he say that?

Because Kipchoge knew that a funny thing had happened after Bannister’s victory: other people began breaking the four-minute mile as well.

They suddenly saw that it was possible, and were inspired to believe that if Bannister could do it, so could they. The barrier he broke for people was just as much a mental one as a physical one.

Do you have a “four-minute mile” in your life? Are there things you would like to achieve, but you feel they’re impossible?

Take courage, because God specializes in breaking barriers!

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Posted on by Lori Cartmell

What Is Your “Burning Bush”?

Image by Leonora Enking via Flickr CC BY-SA 2.0

You’ve got to love a plant that turns pink in the autumn.

I’m referring to the Euonymus alatus shrub, whose leaves change from green to a vivid, hot pink in the fall.

One of its nicknames is “burning bush,” because in autumn the shrub looks like it’s on fire. It must have reminded people of the burning bush Moses encountered in Exodus 3, through which God spoke to him.

I think God uses many different ways to speak to us today, each a “burning bush” tailored to our unique personalities.

Probably the primary way that God communicates to us is through Scripture. We read or hear a verse that seems to speak directly into our situation. By reading the words of Jesus, we “hear” God’s heart. We may also receive a word from the Holy Spirit or sense God’s guidance through prayer.

There are many instances in the Bible of God giving someone a message through dreams or visions. He may relay information in a dramatic fashion via an audible voice, or the more subtle “still, small voice.”

Other times God may use another person to convey something to you: a Christian speaker or author, or a family member or friend who’s a believer. God may also speak to you through the lyrics of a song or hymn.

He might be sending a message to you through your circumstances, especially via some difficult situation. Or, you may encounter a coincidence that seems like a “sign,” and you think God may be trying to tell you something.

With me, I feel that God occasionally “speaks” to me through nature.

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Posted on by Lori Cartmell

Your Training Won’t Make Sense at First

Image by Bart via Flickr. CC-BY-NC 2.0

“Why do we have to learn math? We’ll never use it in real life!”

Did you ever say something like that to your teachers in school?

It’s true that you may never have used algebra once you graduated from high school. Your knowledge of trigonometry or calculus may have lain dormant since then, too.

But that wasn’t actually the point of algebra, or any other subject.

The point of learning math was to train your brain.

Mastering mathematical concepts increases your problem-solving skills, develops flexible thinking and creativity, and encourages analytical reasoning.

These are things that are extremely valuable in every area of life.

But you might not have been able to see that when you were trying to understand the Pythagorean theorem in school.

That’s because your training often won’t make sense until much later.

Several heroes in the Bible found this out:

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