You're Not Chained To The Bench

One of the most courageous things we can do is look our bad patterns, our past regrets, and our demons in the face and decide if we really want them to have the last word.  

Carrying Heaven

I want to be a simple container, a size and shape that can be used as He wills.  (I’ve noticed that simple containers seem to be the most versatile and elaborate ones tend to sit aside to just be looked at and admired.)  I have been pressed, but it has proven to have been within the design of His hands though sometimes I doubted it along the way.  I have been in the fire, but it is those times, trusting that He was sovereign and wise, that have proven to have brought strength to a once weak and fear-filled girl.  Without the fire I would still be clay, crumbling or shaped by every flood that washed in. 

As vessels we can be used for bringing cool water to the thirsty, nourishing soup to the hungry, words of hope to the weary and discouraged, and His Spirit of life to those who are dead (in any way) and dying right before our eyes.  Our message is life.  Let’s not squander the opportunity of our days here.

But to take heaven’s best, we have to first get something in us.  Today, take time to receive.  Pause to ask Him what He would give you today to give away. 

It is an awesome thing to be a vessel that can give heaven away all day long, no matter what our job is, no matter where we are.  We can do it more beautifully when we get our anger, envy, and resentment out of us.  You may not know how to get there, but be willing to ask Him for help.  Humility is an essential part of giving something that gives life and heals.   Be willing to unclutch your white-knuckled hands and let go of it.

I am quite sure that not everything I’ve experienced was by God’s plan.  There is a lot of crap in the world and an enemy whose goal is to kill, steal, and destroy.  But like Joseph discovered in his life of many delays and setbacks, I have learned that all that is offered to God can be turned upside down.  Truly, what was intended to harm us can become glorious assets. 

Gosh, I love that He can do stunning things with an old pot that desires to be His.  

The Answer, My Friend...

I got to watch another miracle yesterday.  I can’t share most of the details, but suffice it to say that a little girl had been praying for her momma.  And God most definitely heard her.   A couple of weeks ago He began a beautiful weaving of events and words, and yesterday—I have no idea how He arranged it—the momma showed up exactly at the place and time that became a miracle moment. 

The follow-up conversation of what had built to those few minutes revealed that God had already spoken.  He had told one of those in this story two weeks ago that He most certainly had the situation in hand.  Worry wasn’t necessary, because this battle was truly already won.  How often do I really believe that for the situations that weigh on my heart and mind?  I wonder if more often I say that I think He has done it, won the battle, but pound heaven’s door, afraid that He might not answer if I don’t draw His attention to the need that is in my focus.  Yesterday was a good lesson to me.  “Rest, child,” are words we can trust. 

Sometimes we are called to be in the trenches, to persevere, but there are seasons of rest as well.  It all, again, comes down to responding to the Spirit as He moves, gently as a soft breeze, or boldly as a storm of love that will forever change some part of the landscape.  We can do either or anything in between He calls us to in peace when we know His heart, trust His character, and love His perfect timing.  In that place, we will experience the beauty as He paints it and hear the nuances of the symphony He creates as words we thought we’d never hear begin to be spoken out loud.  We can live in the mystery.   We can toss the wet clothes of our concerns into the dryer, set the temperature and timer on the machine we’ve purchased, or put them out on the line of faith, and let the fresh air of all He purchased infuse them.  There is nothing like sleeping between sheets that have been hung in the summer air.  Yesterday was like that.  The fragrance of it will linger with me for a long time.  It was the aroma of heaven.

Finding the Strong Arms

The believing life is one where we are continually called to walk on water, to step out onto the yet unseen, trusting that He meant what He said and He is who He claims to be.  We will not find the joy of His promises unless we put our weight on them.  We have to go farther than the place we can catch ourselves.

He Who Has Ears

Too often I come to You with a list already filling my thoughts of what I want You to address, and I control the agenda of our time without even realizing it.  But maybe there are other things that You would like to bring up, Lord, something to address or call my attention to.  Reading Your word does that if I will open my bible.  But pausing does also.  What’s on Your mind and in Your heart this morning?  What’s it time for from Your point of view?   If I trust You and want Your will most, I will quiet myself and listen.

Coming Along

He came to keep company with us, to sit at our tables, join in our conversations, walk with us wherever we go as a friend who will point out all the good stuff along the way so we don’t miss it.

Graduation Day

Yesterday I had the privilege of speaking to the clients in our agency during our first graduation ceremony in our chemical dependency program.  I thought I'd share it in the hopes that it might encourage others in the midst of the struggle in this life-long race.  Here it is:

Well we are really happy today to celebrate your progress and the victory you have tasted.  We are proud of you for the steps you have taken and for the courage and determination you have put forth toward your own recovery.  Well done.

We know that for all WE can try to offer you here at Healing Hearts…support, programs, accountability, instruction, and care, there are two significant things that must be present for you to truly have your freedom.

The first is the precious gift of choice that you have.  It is the amazing power given to every human being to choose how they will live in the face of needs, hurts, daily hardships, temptations, fears, and everything that comes against us.  We’ve been given this thing called free will, which is mankind’s most astonishing opportunity and has caused its deep brokenness.  We have ALL failed in using it well, made excuses, and blamed others.  But what a precious gift it is!

The second thing is the truth that you are dearly loved, endlessly treasured, and created for the utter joy of a God who is crazy about you.  We can provide classes and tools, but the very best thing we can offer you, make no mistake about it, is the truth about who God is in all His goodness, to remind you that you were designed by Him with GREAT things in mind, and to walk with you as you take hold more and more of the freedom and peace and provision He longs for you to have and died and rose to give you.  He came to earth that long ago Christmas morning so there would always be enough.

This God, who thought of sunsets and mountains and wildflowers and giraffes, and spoke them into being, thought of each of us, envisioned who we could be, and smiled, then gave us life and spoke our names. 

We’ve all screwed up His great plan, but even in all the things we’ve done to take our lives to the brink of destruction, we are here, each of us in this room and together today.  Coincidence?   I don’t think so. 

Ten years ago this spring, I was in the midst of planning a several room art installation and meditation space for Easter.   One of the rooms was to be set up as a beautiful wedding banquet symbolizing the feast ahead in heaven.  DeWayne’s wife Maja and I had been friends for a year or two at that point and when she heard the plan for the event, she offered to arrange for us to borrow some wonderful dishes and glassware.  We carried crate after crate from the home of the lovely lady who was loaning them to us, packed them into the car, drove to the event location, hauled them up the steps, and carefully got all the fragile pieces unpacked and in place.  I was thinking about that this week.  How we had together prepared a place where truth was displayed through beauty and words.  Not so unlike here, and this past year of watching the growth of Healing Hearts from a two-room agency with no office phone to the multiple location, many phone facility we are today and are still becoming.   Both the Easter Vigil and Healing Hearts, at the core, were established to offer tastes of God’s goodness to those who come our way.  But neither have been done without great effort, a lot of hours of planning, excitement, frustration, and on-going prayer. 

The same is true for our stories.  Great things don’t happen unless we take hold of our life and decide we want it to count.  You have been made wonderfully, been gifted with abilities and talents, set loose in the world to make a difference and to participate in good.  This community needs you and will benefit by what you, uniquely, have been designed to offer it.  But it takes persistence.

Forty-two years ago, as I was just leaving high school, I began an experiment…to see if this God I’d been introduced to really meant what He said, really was who He claimed to be.  The way I figured it…

If God could take a thought and turn it into a star-filled galaxy,

If He could take a widow with nothing and give her a houseful of containers filled with enough oil to take care of the needs of herself and her son,

If He could really touch blind eyes and restore their sight, lame legs and make them walk again, hard hearts and show them how to love,

If He could turn a bloody and hate-filled crucifixion Friday into an empty tomb and very much alive Sunday morning,

If He could take a bunch of confused disciples and transform them into wise, courageous, and caring men and women,

How could I not be curious about what He would do with my life if I gave Him room and time to work.

This is what I’ve learned…

He is the most coolest person who has every lived. (Come on…He walked on water and fed thousands with one kid’s lunch!)

He has the very best ideas.

He has the power to unfold them, in the most unexpected ways.  (He never once has written the script the way I would have.)

He has all the resources to make His dreams for us come true.

He IS peace.

He has the best sense of humor, but never at our expense.

He is endlessly faithful.  He keeps all of His promises.

And it isn’t easy to learn to trust Him, for we’ve been disappointed so often and let down by those who were supposed to care, and sometimes horrendous things have been done in His name.

But when given a chance,

He heals us.

He alone gives us real freedom and strength.

And…He generously lets us in on that kind of work.  Here is what He invites each of us into:  In His own story He tells us…

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the suffering and afflicted.  He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted, to announce liberty to captives, and to open the eyes of the blind.  (On a side note…I have a friend who was recently on a trip overseas, prayed for a man and watched his eye, having had no cornea, re-form in the 20 minutes he was praying for him..  He showed me the pictures—AWESOME!)  He has sent me to tell those who mourn that the time of God’s favor to them has come, and the day of his wrath to their enemies.  To all who mourn he will give:  beauty for ashes; joy instead of mourning; praise instead of heaviness.  For God has planted them like strong and graceful oaks for his own glory.  And THEY shall rebuild the ancient ruins, repairing cities long ago destroyed, reviving them though they have lain there many generations.”  Isaiah 61:1-4

We have every reason to hope because He is not done!

We are not alone.  We are never without His help.  And it’s not too late for God to do brilliant things in all of us.  He desires for us to have an amazing story and to know the One who writes magnificent adventures and miraculous endings in our book. 

It’s a stunning invitation we are given to receive all that He has and to share in all that He is and does. 

We each have a life and breath today.  There are more pages in our story to be written.  Try handing God the pen and go follow Him and see what surprisingly good pages He will write in your book.

Take that free will that you possess and go get the treasure that’s waiting for you.  It’s going to be awesome.  And you better always come back and tell us your stories so we can keep celebrating with you.