Blog - Kristina Lunde

July 29, 2024 by Kristina Lunde Leave a Comment

Vacation Bible School: A Volunteer’s Prayer

Dear Lord God,

I pray that you develop the fruit of the Spirit in the lives of all the children and volunteers during our Vacation Bible School (VBS) this summer. Bring the content, logistics, volunteers, and children together to fulfill Your purposes for this ministry.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23 ESV

Lord, let Your love fill and direct us as we teach these precious children.

Please inspire everyone involved in VBS to find and express joy in you, dear Jesus.

Let your peace fill our church and the grounds while the children play, craft, and learn the VBS lesson themes.

Give the volunteers patience to meet the needs of these children.

Provide opportunities for us to show kindness and goodness in all interactions with children.

Develop faithfulness in us as we teach and love these children in Your name, dear Jesus.

Guide us in gentleness toward the children, especially when they need to be admonished or redirected.

Work in us self-control, as we teach the children to develop the same in their interactions with others.

Lord God, please grow the fruit of your Spirit in everyone involved in this VBS program. Let all that we do in this ministry bring you honor and glory. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

June 29, 2024 by Kristina Lunde Leave a Comment

My Mother-in-Law’s Legacy: Strength Expressed in Abiding Faith

My mother-in-law Lois fell sleep on the afternoon before her ninety-third birthday, quietly passing from this earth into the presence of Jesus Christ her Savior. Lois died as she had lived, leaving a legacy of strength and peace grounded by her faith in God.

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 5:1 NIV

The adjustments came quietly as Lois’s life slowed down and her abilities declined. She did not object when others drove, cooked, and did household chores for her. No agitation, hallucinations, or delirium affected the years of dementia. Decreased verbal expression accompanied the cognitive changes. The stories Lois used to tell decreased to mere sentences. Then a few words replaced the sentences. In her last months, single words expressed entire thoughts. Physical decline progressed slowly until Lois’s final year of life when she fell and required more help. But Lois always maintained a calm, peaceful presence.

The pastor, who had visited Lois over the past year, gave a short message at her memorial service. He focused on Lois’s strength, emphasizing that it was not worldly strength, but strength expressed in love, humility, and faith in God. Those of us who knew my mother-in-law knew that she was not a weight-lifting, aerobic-training, endurance-proving athlete. Instead, Lois exhibited inner strength, a quiet trust in God that continued throughout the challenges of her life.

One of Lois’s caregivers presented another eulogy. She spoke lovingly about Lois, sharing how the caregivers had helped Lois adjust from cane to walker to wheelchair and, finally, into a hospital bed.

Grandchildren, neighbors, caregivers, and church friends had only known Lois as an elderly woman. As a ninety-two-year-old woman, parts of Lois’s story sounded far removed from the current century. But Lois’s daughter spoke of Lois’s adventures, starting when she left her small Wisconsin town for nursing school in Chicago. Lois pulled two friends into her career plans, leading them across the country for nursing jobs, first to California and then into the Air Force Nurse Corps. Lois met her husband Bob while they were assigned to Ellington Air Force Base in Texas. After completing her next Air Force assignment to Sembach Air Base in Germany, Lois and Bob left the Air Force, married, and returned to Chicago. Following a similar path as Lois and her friends, Bob and Lois later moved from Chicago to southern California. The uplifting eulogy brought surprise and smiles into the sorrow of the memorial.

This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says: “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it.” Isaiah 30:15

With these words, God chastised the Israelites through the prophet Isaiah. The Israelites refused the repentance and rest God offered, but Lois never did. Instead she lived it out, embodying a lifestyle of faith, peace, and rest. Lois left a legacy of spiritual strength, exemplified by her abiding faith in God.

May 31, 2024 by Kristina Lunde Leave a Comment

The 9/11 Memorial Pools: Michael Arad’s “Reflecting Absence”

Architect Michael Arad designed the World Trade Center-site memorial, entitled “Reflecting Absence,” to honor the 2,983 people killed on September 11, 2001 (in New York, Pennsylvania, at the Pentagon) and during the February 26, 1993 bombing. Opened on the tenth anniversary of 9/11, the two memorial pools were built upon the actual footprints of 1 World Trade Center (the North Tower) and 2 World Trade Center (the South Tower), respectively. In Arad’s words, “Its scale is massive and personal, its impact individual.”

I knew that my first impression of the 9/11 memorial would be profoundly moving but wasn’t sure what to expect. Obviously, this would be no splashy, gravity-defying fountain with upward-facing theme. No, these gravity-sucking, downward-focused pools gripped me emotionally, as intended. Michael Arad eloquently summarized his design: “You have to make that absence tangible, physical, something that, when you walk up to the edge of that void, you feel it. It’s not just in your head, it’s in your heart.” How these two towers, after standing sentry over Manhattan for almost three decades, could be obliterated in terrorist-piloted acts of evil is still incomprehensible. Arad’s words rang true for me, even though my first visit to the site was over twenty years after the event. The horrors that unfolded that September 11, 2001 morning impacted our nation forever.

Design

The pools, constructed by Delta Fountains, are an engineering marvel. Thirty-foot-high waterfalls frame identical one-acre square memorial pools. In the center of each pool, the water cascades into a smaller square whose bottom is unseen, an inestimable deep pit when viewed from above. The memorials’ seeming simplicity belies the engineering expertise that designed and now sustains these catchment basins: 16 pumps to circulate 26,000 gallons of water each minute, circulating over 480,000 gallons of recycled water—every day in all types of weather.

Symbolism

The pools identify the towers’ footprints, commemorating a vibrant storied past now relegated to sorrowful sinking silence. Invisible water depths symbolize the physical devastation caused when the massive twin towers collapsed in dust and debris. Emotionally, the waterfalls represent the grief and sorrow that flowed down and down and down—to the unfathomable depths of survivors’ wounded hearts.

Since the memorials opened in 2011, their dedicated employees continue to uphold the memory of lives lost. On the deceased victims’ birthdays, memorial workers place white roses on the names etched into the bronze parapets. What a beautiful act of love and service by those who care for the fountains and honor the deceased! Restaurant workers. Finance experts. Passengers on a seemingly-random airplane flight. Office workers on a Tuesday morning. First responders. Rescue personnel. Unexpected heroes. Dads, moms, grandparents, siblings, children. Unborn babies who should now be in this world as 20-somethings. Innocent victims—so many precious people—killed in the attacks. And yet, in this memorial, these lives are remembered and honored.

Lord, as the God of all comfort, please be with those whose 9/11 losses are pervasive and ongoing. Be with those who are still facing their sorrow. The one whose unborn child might be graduating from college now. The daughter whose father won’t walk her down the wedding aisle this summer. And the widowed wife grieving the husband who is absent as she ages. Lord God, comfort all who grieve and bless them with hope and a future, as only you can. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

April 23, 2024 by Kristina Lunde Leave a Comment

A Lesion, a Lump, and a Biopsy: Avoiding the Bunny Trail of Anxiety

A Lesion, a lump, and a biopsy. Two issues related to two body systems. Two doctor’s appointments in one day. Would this send me detouring down the bunny trail of anxiety? Everyone else seemed to be having much more fun that day, watching a total eclipse of the sun. My brother drove across two states to see it. A friend and her husband had traveled to Texas for the excitement. All that made me more prone to self-pity on my rough day.

So what did I do with my lesion, lump, and the likely need for a biopsy? A detour down the bunny trail of anxiety beckoned me: this could be cancer. What am I going to do? I may need a biopsy and excision, a realistic outcome I have faced before. The bunny trail of anxiety may start realistically, but then it makes a fast descent downward. What if the biopsy result shows cancer? What if I need chemo? Will I have to clear my schedule and my life to deal with this?!

The phrase future-tripping is how my friend Daphne describes that process of mentally starting to trip over obstacles that have not yet presented themselves. These concerns may never develop into problems, because my current assumptions might be false and never impact my future. A relevant Bible verse against future-tripping, or getting detoured down the bunny trail of anxiety, is:

Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. Matthew 6:34 ESV

Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay

In other words, leave tomorrow’s anxiety for tomorrow. The context of that verse, Matthew 6:25-34, is Jesus’ description of food, drink, and clothing as basic needs that the heavenly Father provides for the birds, flowers, and grass. Jesus asks us to consider how much more God will take care of us. Jesus lays out the priorities: all these things will be added to us if we seek God’s kingdom and righteousness first. Verse 33 is the antidote for the bunny trail of anxiety, because when we seek God first, we do not need to be anxious for tomorrow.

In my head, I know this. And after reflective thoughts and editing, my words may later express this content. But when my mind is flooded with the stress of unknowns, I find it tough to live out those Bible verses. Breathe deeply. Repeat the Bible verses to myself. Ask God for help to avoid future-tripping or detours down the anxiety bunny trail. Don’t choose to worry when I can trust God instead:

Be still and know that I am God. Psalm 46:10 ESV

Meditate on Psalm 46:10. Apply God’s Word to the concerns of my life: lesions, lumps, biopsies, and their related outcomes. My eclipse day was not an easy-breezy day. I left the first appointment with one skin biopsy and treatment for many superficial skin lesions. The next appointment challenged me to trust God even more. No matter the outcome, I need to be still and trust God as the Lord of my life.

Lord, please stop me from detouring down the bunny trail of anxiety. Teach me to trust you for all the unknowns. Not just to intellectually know that you provide but—deep in my soul and body—to completely trust you. Help me to be still and know that you are God. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

March 27, 2024 by Kristina Lunde Leave a Comment

Daddy’s Girl: From Hate to Belonging

Like a queen to her adoring subjects, she expounded on her topic, gesticulating as she explained how she persuaded her father to concede to her demands. She was sure her wisdom, dispensed with grandiose ideas and a bit of condescension, would impress us. Not a chance. And no, we never asked for advice on being a Daddy’s Girl.

“You know how you just look at your Dad with big eyes and he’ll melt and give you whatever you ask for?!” She expected that to resonate with us. But no, we had no idea. Standing around her lawn chair, we wondered what this large, sassy thirty-something meant by her question.

I thought about the three of us and realized why her experience meant absolutely nothing to us. One of the teenagers had been abandoned by her father very early in life. Raised by a single mother, the teenager barely knew her biological father. He had seldom contributed any money, much less time, to her or her sister as they grew up. The other teenager—my daughter—had lived for almost half of her life without her father, who died of a sudden heart attack. In addition to parenting my children without my husband, I had also grown up fatherless after my Dad died in a plane crash.

And so we stared blankly at Miss Queen-of-her-lawn-chair. We couldn’t relate to the financial riches she spoke of or the idea of a father who granted her every wish. Nor did we understand her arrogant manipulative ways. Or how she took pride in the ability to get anything she wanted out of her father. That irked me. A lot. I have always hated Daddy’s Girls.

Honestly, it’s really cute when girls are little and they have a loving relationship with their father. I used to be thrilled that my daughter and husband shared such a close relationship. I looked forward to watching my daughter’s attachment to her father grow all of her life. Until his life ended and we didn’t have him anymore.

What I despise is when a spoiled princess grows up to demand things from her father, milking him out of time, money, and whatever else she can get. That “ability,” as lawn-chair Daddy’s Girl bragged about, does not translate to successful grown-up skills. Manipulation, entitlement, and mooching will not help you develop life skills of maturity, compromise, negotiation, and working hard toward a goal.

At my recent resentment over a spoiled Daddy’s Girl—and my wording sounds much gentler than I felt—I thought about my heavenly Father. Or rather, the Holy Spirit directed my mind to my Heavenly Father. I have lived 50+ years without my earthly father, but I can look back and trace how my heavenly Father has protected, provided for, and loved me all of my life. Yes, my earthly father loved Jesus and taught me about my Savior, but my heavenly Father has spoiled me with so much more. God made the amazing sacrifice of sending His son Jesus to die for my disobedience and bitterness.

God has given me His Word to learn from and study. What a gift! Everything I need for life and living, I can find in the Bible. I can spend my life studying it and never exhaust the rich meaning and application of God’s Word to my circumstances. I talk with Him any time, confident that He hears me. Although I ask for a lot, I trust Him to answer. He may not answer like I want Him to, but I can be sure that He knows best. My heavenly Father will always guide me, even when my requests are selfish and I veer in the wrong direction.

My Lord has richly blessed me with forgiveness, salvation, redemption, sanctification (even when it hurts), and the promise of eternal life with Him. I guess I can call myself a Daddy’s Girl, a child of my Heavenly Father’s. I am proud to belong to my Abba Father.

Lord, you have given me much more than I deserve. Thank you so much for sending Jesus in my place to die for the sin I so easily commit. Please forgive me and help me to appreciate and love you. Teach me to obey, even if it requires your discipline and conviction first. I love you, my Abba, and I am honored to be your daughter. Amen.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23 ESV