Ministering Jesus Is Everything

I walked through the wet grass during work hours this week, and ended up with damp socks.  Now, I know in the grand scheme of things that that is not a huge deal, but it taught me a lesson.  Lesson #1, don't walk through wet grass during work hours.

Lesson #2 will take me a couple more minutes.  It was a great work day, we had some fun things planned for staff meeting, and all of my charting was done (bonus points).  I should have been having a grand time, but I was so distracted by those darn damp socks that I couldn't focus on the positive. All I wanted was to go home and dry my feet.  Kind of silly, right? I mean, it's not a death's door problem, it was just an annoyance, but it was preventing me from joining in the fun.  It made me wonder how many times I have missed that in someone else?  How many times have I forgotten to speak to a person's most immediate need, before pressing on to my own agenda?  

Sometimes I get frustrated, because I want to speak to someone's heart and I feel like they aren't hearing me.  I want so much to reach them for Christ, that I run right past the opportunity to be Jesus to them.  I haven't cared for their most immediate need. If Jesus were walking on earth right now, he would have given me His dry socks.  He would have taken them off His own feet and covered mine, and in doing so, He would have both warmed me physically and made me feel loved.  Isn't that what it's all about?  It's about loving our neighbors and our enemies and, in so doing, leading them to Christ.  Not bashing them over the heads with the gospel and wondering why they don't respond.  

As you go out and walk through your week, as people are sent across your path, sit down. Listen.  Find out what their most basic need might be that day, and meet it.  Be hands, be feet, be salt, be light, be the one who cares for the body so that Jesus can minister to their soul.  

James 2:

14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? 

15 Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. 

16 If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?

After The Rain

I spend time sitting with families who are suffering and the one question they always ask is "why?". "Why me?", "why us?", "why not them?". It is a reasonable question in the midst of pain. That depth of wondering if somehow we have earned grief or been randomly chosen to endure tragedy. I have been there sitting in the dark, asking, looking for answers in the silence, pouring words out in tears.

It is in the backward glance that that suffering takes on new meaning. Somehow, that seed of affliction that we can not bear comes to rest in our heart's soil. We can not see it, most times we don't recognize that it even existed until it bursts forth. Days, months, years into the future it takes root and something grows. Empathy, joy, purpose, or perhaps bitterness and anger. What have we allowed our heart to become in this adversity? Nurturing soil or cold stone?

With that "looking back" on times of hardship I've found that the question should not be "why?", but "what?". What will this suffering produce in me? What will it produce for others? What will I do with it? What gives honor to that which was lost and purpose to the pain? When we focus on the "what" instead of the "why" we move our mindset away from creating more torment in our souls.

Grief is important, it gives time for our tears to soak our heart's garden, but it is not meant to be forever. A time is coming after the rain.

Hebrews 10:23

 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.

...we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope.  Romans 5: 3,4

Winging It

For the past two weeks, there has been a Cardinal slamming himself against the sun porch window. Nothing I do discourages him. Today, he has decided he needs a little more momentum, so he flies back a few feet and then slams into the window. I shooed him away, I hung things so he could see it was a window, but he persists. We've named him Adam. Dearest Adam, you have all of the "out there" just for you, and you continue to insist that you want something that isn't in your own best interests. In fact, what you're doing is dangerous and will eventually result in harm or death. You even bring a friend now and then, and encourage her to do the same thing. If nothing else, I thank you for giving me a picture this morning of what my life sometimes looks like to God. "Dearest Michelle, please quit slamming yourself against that window. I have something so much better for you." 

Take a moment and re-evaluate your path today. Are you walking in His will, or are you beating yourself against a wall of your own choosing?

Hide It Under A Bush, Oh No

I've been thinking about the sermon yesterday. That's good, right? LOL Pastor Joe talked about Genesis 3, and it always breaks my heart. That part of Genesis, I mean. The part where God is walking in the garden, and His children hide, and He calls out "where are you?". I remember the old days, when clothes racks in stores were round and my little boys would hide in them. They'd disappear, and I'd have a long moment of panic. "Where are you?!" And then I'd find them, and be both relieved and mad at the same time. It's that feeling of dread that comes back to me when I read Genesis 3. How God must have felt when His kids went "missing". The frantic searching, straining to hear their voices to know that they were OK. I want to say I'm better than that, that I would never have touched the forbidden fruit, that I'd never hide from God, but that's not true. I think this story pains my heart because it's so close to my own truth. How many days does God cry out "Michelle, where ARE you?". Where is your mind? Where is your heart? Where is your praying voice? Where ARE you? I long to walk with you, to counsel you, to lead you and give you direction, but you've gone missing. Please come out. I love you. No matter what you've done, I still love you. So, today, I ask myself, and you, where ARE you? It's time to come out of hiding. God longs for relationship with you, and it's not Him who is quiet. He's crying out your name, and you're in the bushes. Come out! Confess. Repent. Be freed, and then go back and burn that silly bush you were in. Genesis 3

The Battle's Already Been Won

Dear young mommy, 
I was right there where you are. Trying to tap some non-existent inner reserve that would make me feel rested. Looking for the "best" way to parent. Wondering if I was doing it right, and if this was the way being a mommy was supposed to feel. One day runs into one long night, one mess turns into many, you never get that shower, and it's the first time in your life you're wearing the same underwear two days in a row. I remember. I won't give you advice, you already get plenty of that. It just makes you more confused. I will tell you this, you won't always get it right, but it's OK. God's got your back. He'll take all those "I wish I had/hadn't" episodes and turn them into something amazing. He'll show your child that love is messy sometimes, that forgiveness goes two ways, and that imperfections can be beautiful. So, take a breath, wipe your tears, and walk back into the battle. I'm praying for you. It's going to be alright.

Proverbs 31
Matthew 19:14

An Unpopular Opinion on Halloween

The headlines this week spoke of a woman who died while scaling a fence in an attempt to escape her violent partner.  She got caught on the fence and was killed and her body hung there for days because everyone thought she was a Halloween decoration.  

I hate Halloween. I have always hated Halloween. OK, maybe not when I was a kid. Back then I was willing to suffer the agony of a sweaty mask and plastic costume in exchange for a couple pounds of chocolate. That has changed as the adult years have crept in and, along with those, the reality of the world we live in. I think about the people for whom blood, gore, and violence are not artificial. While we are decorating our yards with severed limbs, they are seeing them in their marketplace after the bombs go off.  While we are celebrating monsters, they are running for their lives from them. 

You're saying "That's not what it's all about, it's about dressing up your kids and going out for a little fun". I hear you, I've been told that many times over the years.  I'm not questioning your motives or looking to throw a wrench in the works.  I know your toddler in a fairy princess costume isn't scary.  What is scary to me about Halloween is that it conditions us to gaze upon horrific images and see them as unreal and by doing so we no longer react.  We drive past impaled effigies, or men of straw hanging by their necks from trees, and we do not even blink.  We seek out the "House of Horror" where we can be chased by actors wielding chain saws and hatchets and we call it fun.   Heaven forbid we should ever experience this type of evil as our own personal reality like so many others. The fact that a young woman lost her life in a violent manner and the passers by did not cringe at the sight of her body on that fence makes me ill.

Our time is short and we are allowing the devil to gain too much ground. We have been sitting and it is long past time for us to stand. Ephesians 6:10 "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground..."

Jesus Wept

Not a single one of us looks forward to the death of someone dear to us. It is the deepest of all aches and we want desperately to avoid it. While we try so hard to walk through the grief we sometimes forget that it is a tribute to those we lost for the people who valued them to "feel". It is an outward and inward demonstration of the immeasurable amount of love we had for them. I don't think we understand that in our culture. We want so badly to take away everyone's pain that we don't allow the people who need to express it to do so. It's OK to hurt today. Pain is like a shovel in our soul. It digs through all the petty arguments and all the perceived little wounds that keep us separated from one another on a daily basis. It pitches those to the side and allows compassion to rise to the surface. It opens our heart's doors to people we would not have let in before. It gives us the opportunity to both run to each other and to God. "2 Corinthians 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God."