Hope Anchors: January 2016

Faith

Quiet - A Five Minute Friday Post

6:52 PM

Faith

Are you Tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion?

12:15 PM

Are you tired?

Worn Out?

Burned out on religion?

Photo Credit: http://morguefile.com

These are all questions Jesus as us. He deeply cares about the condition of your heart and emotions. He doesn’t just ask us surface questions nor does he listen with distracted ears. He intently listens with every fiber of His being and offers us answers.

I love nothing more than grabbing a giant size coffee and venting my heart out to a safe friend. She listens with a bent ear of grace and understanding. She comes alongside and even partakes in the biggest dessert known to man. Never once does she judge me or make me feel out of place with my spewing of ugly emotions. (Even though my emotions are very much out of control.) She sits with empathy and tenderness in her eyes. She doesn’t say a word.

Drunk on anger, dehydrated by bitterness, and fatigue by deprivation of rest I continue on with wreck less words. My words knock reason, logic, and by the book ideals out of the park. Fueled with disappointment. Stress, and yes even jealousy I am DONE. Stick a fork in me DONE.

I am worn out. Tired. Weary. Exhausted. Search Webster’s big fat book of words; find every adjective to describe being over being done and that was me.

As much as I appreciated her time, empathy, company, warm coffee, and dessert I still left the dame as when I came. I dare even say worse. I was emptier than when I arrived. I had truly emptied my heart. I was void of all feeling. Numb to the core.

Jesus, he longs to do the same except he offers solutions. Answers. A way to recover my life.

“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me – watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I wont lay anything heavy or ill fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”(MSG Matthew 11:28-30)

Not the recover we are accustomed to as with covering over with makeup, self-care, self-help books, date nights, parties, relationships. Not the kind of recover we use to ide things with. No he doesn’t just cover over us he re covers all of us.

He recovers our entire life. From the inside out. Just like a professional reupholster would recover a forgotten piece of art.

Right now I have a piece in my bedroom that is desperate need of being recovered. This chair needs to be stripped to the bones and everything replaced.

After this process this chair will be one of my most prized treasure of furniture. She will become a piece to hand down throughout the family.

Right now she is an eyesore. She carries a foul stench she is displeasing to almost all five senses. However once I have her recovered she will be restored to her original purpose and will be pleasing to all who come in my house.

She sits in a corner covered over in blankets, hidden. Waiting for someone to take the time to recover her and bring back her purpose and once vibrant purpose.

We aren’t much different from this chair. We get used, worn, and stained. We serve a purpose but we also need to recover our life. We need ONE to come and recover our life. We need ONE to uncover, remove all the blankets used to keep us hidden, and strip us to the bones. We need Christ to come and not just cover us but recover our life.

Encouragement

Little Toes and Tiny Legos

12:31 PM

Your life is a gift. I'll never forget the day my husband and I thought it would be a good idea to give our oldest sons legos. Legos people of all things, legos. I also remember the day I made the biggest regret of my life, I'm just kidding but SERIOUSLY (Insert biggest sigh of aggravation you can imagine).

When I chose to give Jude an entire tub of legos, I knew what I was doing. I knew exactly what was going to happen. I knew he would dump them out, I knew there would be messes, I knew I would stumble and I knew there would be great amount of suffering felt all the way from the bottom of my foot to the top of my head. His gift, that I gave him, would cause me inconvenience, frustration, and hurt me. I also knew I would have to spend time helping him clean up his legos. None of these things, kept me from giving him a gift.

I also knew, his gift would bring him joy, sharpen his motor skills, develop creativity, teach him to share, how to navigate through challenges and difficulties. I knew his gift would add to his developmental process, maturity, growth and an abundance of memories. This gift would not only enrich his life but others who came into his life. I knew this gift would help shape and mold the way he thought, his decision-making skills. He would learn balance, and stability, experience high emotion of completing a building, dreaming a dream, and learning that he could if he tried. I desired for him to learn hard work pays off. There are many more things this one gift would bring him and me. I knew this gift would grow with him. He would enjoy this gift for years.

I wonder if this is the way our Father sees the gifts he gives us in our life. He knows the ends and outs. He knew what he was doing when he gave us the gift of our life, just like he knew what he was doing when he gave us the gift of his life. Your life is a gift. Your life though difficult, frustrating, and painful at times, is a gift. You are a gift. He knew you would make a mess with your gift, just like I knew my oldest would make a mess with his gift. Your mess didn’t deter him from blessing you. He like I as a mother also knew he would have to come in and help you clean your mess up.

I often tell my son, “Don’t be afraid to ask for help.” In this life you are going to have many troubles, but Jesus said he was going to leave us peace, and a comforter. Don’t be afraid to ask Holy Spirit, the Great comforter, for help with your gift, your life.

Maybe you need help cleaning up your mess. Maybe you need help trying to navigate through emotions you are feeling from the frustrations of your gift. Perhaps you are agitated with the one you are forced to share your gift with AKA your husband or family member. Could it be you need insight on how to creatively use your gift, your life, in a way that brings joy and fulfillment to others around you?

I want to leave you with this, life is a gift, life is messy, but don’t be afraid to ask for help. He knew, and yet he still decided to give. Don’t quit giving. Don’t quit living.

Encouragement

King of My Heart (w/ spontaneous) - Steffany Gretzinger & Jeremy Riddle

11:33 AM

Featured

Five Minute Friday: First

8:26 PM

Encouragement

Marred Vessels

12:52 PM

Marred: to damage or spoil to a certain extent; render less perfect, attractive, useful, etc.; impair or spoil (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/marred)

Have you ever felt this way before? Less than perfect. Slightly, unattractive. Not quite as useful. I imagine if we are all HONEST there is not one reading this who cannot say without hesitation, “YES.”

I had a mentor tell me once to never hide your scars they are beautiful, a perfect picture of healing. Grace. Redemption. Marred. I never really thought about my scars as beautiful. These words resonated with me. I quietly listened as they echoed for weeks, even months in the corridors of my heart and mind.

“Your scars, the places you strive to mask, these places are where my glory is revealed. Why would you hide my beauty, healing, grace? Your scars like mine tell the most beautiful story of all.”

“Sissy, don’t throw that!” I can still hear his squeaky voice screaming at me in hopes to keep me from getting hurt.

I in my great wisdom at seven years year old chose to ignore my older brother. Sibling rivalry couldn’t be strong between he and I at this time in our lives. I now know twenty-four years later he really was trying to save me from anguish.

I threw the board into the bright blue sky except it went nowhere not up, not down, just into my hand. The board I had chosen to use had a nail bent sticking out, and as I threw it, somehow the rusty nail slid into the palm of my hand as though it was a major league baseball player sliding into home plate.

I still have a scar on my right hand just under my thumb. I will never forget this day I became marred partly, because the aftermath was a little traumatic for me. I ended up with a couple of stitches and bloody mess.

For the rest of my life I have a scar to remind me, I don’t know it all! I didn’t know it all then, and I sure don’t know it all now.

Scars tell stories of events. Scars are like a timeline and a history book of our life. Perhaps the mar you are dealing with today was because you didn’t heed wisdom when she called. Maybe your scar is from someone else’s careless and wreck less decisions.

I have many scars, and they tell many stories. Today I just wanted to share kind of a funny one about not listening to wisdom. If I wasn’t in competition with my brother, and had I listened to him, had I not wanted to be the hero I wouldn’t have this in particular scar on my hand.

I also heard my mentor tell the story of two ladies who realized they had the same scar. She looked into our eyes and the light bulb went off. We, You and I, we are not in this alone. We are in this together.

The lady looked into the eyes of the other lady and said, “You have my scar.” She recognized her scar in the scar of another’s. It was in this moment I realized He wears our scars as well. He says to us, “I have your scar.”

He healed us, and bore our scars to show us healing is in his hands. Friend if you are hurting and are marred like me in too many ways to count, would you listen to Jesus as he whispers, “I have your scar. I bore your pain on the cross; I can heal your pain. Your scars can tell a new story. A story of love, and healing. HOPE. A life full of beauty, because you came to me and I healed you. Your scars don’t have to tell of devastation and hurt anymore. No I make all things new they can tell a new story.”

Father,

I pray for those who have wounds that are not yet healed. I ask that you would embrace them and heal their broken dreams, hearts, and minds. I ask that you would take away their disappointment and unfulfilled expectations and restore them. Give them a new story. Let your healing rise like the dawn, and let wounds heal into beautiful scars reminding them that they are useful in your hands, they are beautiful, and they have purpose. Bring my friends peace where there is chaos and trauma. In the darkest of places you shine brightest. I thank you that joy comes in the morning. Please heal them, comfort them, and hold them until it is time to remove the stitches. May their healing come quickly but may they not pick at the stitches and remove them prematurely causing infection. Let your process bring forth patience and a pure heart of gold in my friends. I love you. I trust you. I believe you can do miracles in the lives of all who surrender to you. Let them one day be able to look into the eyes of the hurting with empathy and say, “I have that same scar.” May they share your story of redemption and healing to all who come into their lives.

In your beautiful name,

AMEN

Quiet - A Five Minute Friday Post

Are you Tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion?

Little Toes and Tiny Legos

King of My Heart (w/ spontaneous) - Steffany Gretzinger & Jeremy Riddle

Five Minute Friday: First

Marred Vessels

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