Showing posts with label day to day with Jesus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label day to day with Jesus. Show all posts

Friday, April 5, 2013

Believing anyway

What do you do ... when it wasn't what you expected.

Sometimes...
we mistakenly view our faith as a guarantee  that life will be good.

Our kids will be safe.
Plans will follow their prescribed course.
Things will move along...smoothly.

We will go to church.
We will send money to needy children.
We will give money to dig fresh water wells.
We will sing on the worship team.
We will read the bible...
and encourage other believers.

Our life will be ideal.

Until it isn't.

Too often, more often than not...

a life of faith
leaves you hanging on by a thread...

part of growing your faith-
is learning to walk in some really scary and dark places...

and part of faith-
is just simply holding on...

Holding on when your heart is broken...
holding on when your child rebels and disappoints you...
holding on when your life, becomes a series of things stacking up, seemingly against you...
holding on when your mother gets Alzheimers...
holding on when your friend walks away...
holding on when the cancer comes back...
holding on...

because, regardless of what our eyes see...
and what our ears hear...
we can trust and believe what our Spirit knows...

That He has a plan-and ultimately it IS good.
That He is with us and will NEVER leave us.
That He is holding our hand...
even when we are barely holding on...

For I am the Lord your God
who takes hold of your right hand
and says to you, Do not fear;
I will help you.
Isaiah 41:13



Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Undeserved

I'd like to think
that I deserve grace...

that my goodness...
my works...
my ideas...
make me worthy...

I'd like to think
that by not choosing to do somethings...
it catches God's eye
and puts a check in the ''winner'' column.

I'd like to think
that because I think it-
I heard it-
I read it-
that it makes what I've decided to apply regarding it-
Truth.

But in the end.

Jesus was not only a great teacher..
or great thinker...
or great speaker...

He was a great do-er...

He fed the five thousand...
He washed the disciples feet...
He ministered to the woman at the well...
He raised Lazarus from the dead...
He ate with sinners...

He was a verb.

He went about doing.

He had standards.
He had demands.
He had expectations of his followers.
He didn't sugar coat...
or condone.

He acted.

He said-if YOU love me FEED my sheep.
Not if you love me put it in your status feed.

He said to GO into the uttermost parts of the earth and
SHARE his Word.

He said that we would be known BY our love.

He said
that until you've removed the plank from your own life-
that you shouldn't worry with the dust in someone else's eye.

He said...
that He wanted us to be vessels of honor...
that were broken and poured out...
used up
and emptied
in service
to Him.

He didn't make it where we deserved it...
or so  that we could earn it...
because He wanted us
to get LOST
in what it was like-
to be LOVED
utterly and completely...
and He wanted it to
COMPEL
us to
GO out
and SHOW that to everyone ...

Monday, March 25, 2013


It's another Monday...

I don't always fall into the camp that hates Mondays. I often wonder what exactly it is that makes some Mondays seem so insane. Granted, other days have their share of crazy...maybe it's something about the change of schedule. Something about coming off the weekend that leaves you ill prepared for falling back into the scheme of things.

I started a new bible study this morning. My friend, Leann, is leading it via Facebook and it is via Good Morning Girls. It's the book of Luke ... about leading and following... and I'm excited.

I am also taking my life back today.

Sound dramatic?
Ha.

I feel , a little, (without trying to actually BE dramatic) like my life has been spinning since June of last year. 
I try to not make Donald's diagnosis about me. I try to not make my life about it. 
But that proves to be kind of a hard thing.
Because, there is something about it-that winds it way into every branch of my thinking, of my doing...
and so I constantly carry it...while trying to put it down.

It's hard for me. 

All that to say...since June, I have been spinning. Kind of without focus-just making it ... doing the next thing.

Today, I recapture two things consistently. 

bible study and exercise

I will pray-in conversation... trying to leave the gasp of words strung together...in a desperate need to connect and plea.
I don't know if it makes sense...I don't know how to make it make sense. And I fight the censor that says , ''that's waaaaaay dramatic'' 

See, I never imagined I would be divorced...
and while we were separated ... I never imagined we would be remarried...
and I never, ever, imagined or was prepared for him to call and tell me he had cancer.
and I never imagined the turn of events...
the renewed feelings,
the scary journey of building trust...
and the day to day dance with carrying the sadness
that he's really sick...
and that really
outside 
of 
an amazing
God making
miracle
it will all end.

I try not to consider that a lot. I sure don't dwell on it and believe you me I speak against it and pray against it and beg for it to be different...

and it leaves me...sitting here, a mess on Monday morning.

It's cliche, the whole ''live each day to the fullest"  and people vow they will and they plan to...tomorrow. Because no one really thinks it will be their last day.
No one considers, seriously that something may actually befall them...
No one lives as if it will be their last day-because they are too busy planning vacations, and day trips and things down the road-to enjoy the path they are on today...

and then suddenly everything has a time frame
and everything shifts
and perspectives change
and you think
how very hard it is to carry that...

and so
today I begin to seek some sort of new normal...
refusing to continue in the swirl of what's out there...
waiting...
because
by virtue of that 
I am losing today...
and today I have everything I need
to make it
and tomorrow
He is waiting there for me...
and I will never be alone.

Selah.