A Cinnamon Roll for Your Thoughts

"My life feels impossible," Abby told me. " I know God is good, but I don't seem strong."

Abby has a physically exhausting job on her feet all day. When she gets off work, she helps the children with homework as she fixes dinner. As the older children start laundry and cleaning chores, Abby spends time with her baby and handicapped toddler, giving her elderly mother a break to gather her own strength after a busy day. On a good night, her husband takes a break from his second job to encourage her.

"I know I shouldn't complain. My mother is slow and often ill, but she is able to live with us and help out. We have more money coming in than is going out. We have great kids. But I'm tired of how hard it is. Some days are impossible! I worry that our house of cards will fall apart. I should be grateful for all I have, shouldn't I? I'm supposed to be able to do all things through Christ who gives me strength."

Dare we admit that life can be harsh, barren and too difficult to bear? Even in our impossible we struggle to be independent and not need anyone's help. We want to say all the right words to show we are faithful. We are thankful for the hardships we don't have and the blessings we do have. We want to be a light in a dark world.

Struggle for survival, success and living a good life wears us down. Instead of being encouraged by others, we are drawn to comparison, frustration and disappointment. We tread water until we can sink into our beds for a few hours, distract ourselves on a screen, or dump our frustrations into social media. What else is there to do when life gets impossible?

Abby did not lack a thankful heart. She did not lack faith in the God who specializes in the impossible. She did not lack a quiet time in her day to pray and read the Word. She knew God was able to do more than she could ask or imagine He could do in her life, so every day she got up, trusting that in her weakness He would give strength. Yet here she sat brokenhearted, soul weary and bone tired.

Who is walking alongside you in your faith journey? It's appropriate to ask for what you need. It's necessary to seek out people who can help you. It's okay that you don't know what to do. We all need people to be the hands and feet of Jesus in our lives. We all need encouragement and people to share our burdens, to pray with us and for us, to pull us into green pastures for rest, to prod us on to love and good works.

Abby finished her tea one day and grinned at me. "It means everything to know I'm not alone even when it feels like I am. We all need that someone who will love our children with us. We all need someone who can be trusted to see when we need a date night or need cinnamon rolls or chicken soup or a lunch date. We all need someone who sees our impossible, makes a pot of tea, picks up our baby and offers hope. We all need to be loved right where are struggling."

"Let us not judge one another any more...let us pursue the things that make for peace and the building up of one another." (Romans 14:13, 19)

Encourage the Exhausted

Encourage the exhausted, and strengthen the feeble,  
Say to those with a palpitating heart:  
Take courage and fear not...
      (Isaiah 35:4) 

Exhausted: To be drained of strength or energy, to be greatly fatigued, to be used up, to have drawn out all that is essential, to be emptied.

Sound like anyone you know? 

"I would love to encourage people," Leah told me. "I think I'd be good at it. I just never really have time. Keeping up with my job and family and the house and laundry...I'm too tired to do anything but watch the News and go to bed!"

How do we encourage the exhausted when our own energy is continually spent? When we live with the same schedules, priorities and exhaustion that the world offers, we discover that we, too, are empty and dry. We cannot encourage others if our daily lives are no different from theirs.

"I have kids", Gina sighed sadly, "and it takes all of my energy to get them where they need to be. It seems like everything I do is for the purpose of growing my kids up to be successful people and use all their God-given opportunities. Besides, kids need to be kept busy and involved! But, yeah, I'm exhausted. Quite frankly, so are they."

Dallas Willard said, "Arrange your life in such a way that you have joy, great contentment and bold confidence in God." It's become my favorite challenge and encouragement for maintaining my priorities.

When we set our minds on things above, not on earthly things, transformation happens. We become the sort of person who naturally encourages the exhausted.

Shouldn't joy, contentment and confidence in God be the bedrock of Christian life? What if instead of living in a tornado of chaos and exhaustion, we stopped? What if instead of laughing off our over-crowded lives, we chose to pursue peace?

Our encouragement would come, not from behavior modification, trying harder to balance everything, but from giving God time and room to refine us, to transform us, from the inside out. We would encourage out of the easy yoke, a rested heart of joy.

Certainly we each have temporarily busy, difficult seasons. Circumstances gradually pull us into exhausting difficulties. It's easy to get stuck there. Have you noticed in your own busy seasons how desperately you long for encouragement?

More of Him. Less of me. That is the source of abundant life, His wellspring of grace upon grace, joy upon joy, peace that passes understanding. He gives us enough time to step away from the noise and fray, to be invited into unhurried living alongside Him in the easy yoke.

What if instead of hurriedly asking someone how they're doing, we listened to the outpouring of their heart?

What if when  asked how we are doing, we took the time to truthfully answer, "You know, I'm doing well. I'm getting good rest, eating healthy foods, getting lovely walks, enjoying the Word and prayer."

What if we arranged our lives in such a way that we could encourage the exhausted out of our abundance?

Living by the Sword

"Aren't you afraid to be in the prison with all those dangerous women?" my neighbor asked.  "Do you have to be around any serial killers?"

The truth is that I am safer behind prison walls than I am on the highway or walking around downtown. My movements are on security video. I carry a body alarm. My husband carries a two-way radio. Armed prison guards would immediately be available if a situation was dangerous.

Prisoners we meet in the chapel have murder, child abuse, prostitution, rape and drug crimes in their pasts.  They look like any other group of women, except for the way they're dressed. With hands clapping and feet dancing as they sing, they sound like any other group of women praising God. Leaning in to hear my teaching, they take notes and ask questions, diligent in their study of God's Word.

They are not dangerous women because of their crimes. They are dangerous women because they are Jesus Followers, because they are becoming women after God's own heart.  They dare to be the hands and feet of Jesus in a fallen world.

Sierra, a Jesus Follower in prison, grips my hand as she tells me her story. She will die inside the prison walls. Society has rightly sentenced her to multiple life sentences. She smiles through tears of compassion for her fellow prisoners, women who live in darkness, slaves to their sins and wrong choices.

"There is so much power in God's love! I'm much more dangerous with my Bible sword than I ever was with a gun or knife. Satan should be afraid. Very, Very afraid."

Satan is indeed afraid. He knows his time is almost up. He holds no power over the truly dangerous woman, the princess-soldier who lives courage, gives wise counsel and goes about doing good. His name is defeat and the battle belongs to the Lord.

The most dangerous women in the world write Bible verses on the hearts of children. They act out Bible stories, making it fun to be in Sunday School. Pots of vegetable soup and loaves of fresh baked bread sit on their counters ready to be taken to the sick and weary. They have time to listen, to bind up the brokenhearted, to stretch loving arms to the needy and to change the course of history with their prayers.

They wage war on selfishness, divorce, abortion and cruelty. Dangerous women send notes to young wives encouraging them to love their husbands and children.  They babysit for young moms when rest becomes long overdue. They care for the widows, the orphans, the homeless. Dangerous women counsel alongside the Holy Spirit. They love people deeply from their hearts, changing the world one step at a time.

Just how dangerous are you? Got your sword in hand?

To Cuddle a Sword

My Bible is falling apart.

Steve, a friend who is my very heart, has walked alongside me through enough years to know from experience my love for the Word of God. He chuckles and shakes his head appreciatively at my Bible. Pages fall out, many are worn from use during reading, studying, counseling and teaching. Trips to nursing homes, prison, children's homes and churches through the decades have left their marks and scars. Tea stains, coffee stains, tear stains and spit-up stains have shaded the pages as much as my various colors of notes.

Children have listened to stories from my Bible. Unbelievers have heard answers to their questions. Young women have listened to me read it. Long nights have been spent with it wrapped in my arms as I prayed. Touching it brings comfort and strength before I ever open it. I don't feel fully dressed without it nearby.

When she was six, Carolanne, sitting beside me at church where we shared my Bible whispered, "I love your Bible. The pages are soft and I can cuddle them." I want her to cuddle my sword, but, more than that, I want her trained to use her own sword.

And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. (Ephesians 6:17)

The Word of God, the Bible, my Sword, is my most precious tangible possession. It looks raggedy and worn, scarred and torn, but don't let that fool you. It makes me powerful, wise, courageous and equipped for every good work. It has the power to take down looming evil dragons and swat baby dragons aside.

The Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12)

Train yourself to use your sword in joy and in sorrow. Practice using it in the easy, in the hard. Study to show yourself as an unashamed soldier, rightly dividing the Word of Truth. Step out of the noise and fray to read it. Memorize it. Meditate on it. Set aside time to know your sword and train yourself to use it.

A soldier-princess learns very quickly that she will never completely understand and master her sword, but she doesn't need to be a master to pick up her sword and use it. She is equipped by the power of the Holy Spirit. She is trained daily in the easy yoke walking and working alongside Jesus. Love the Word of God, soldier-princess. Be more familiar with it than anything else you own, even your cell phone.

What are you doing to train yourself to use your sword?

Consider the Woodpecker

Every morning, a red-headed woodpecker tries to drill a hole in the corner of my house, a house not made of wood.

For over a year I have watched him grow in boldness and diligence, drilling holes in each of our trees. He's beautiful, smart, unique, funny.

Lately, he is determined to change the unchangeable. He is consistent, but he is wrong. No matter how loud or angry he becomes, his efforts are wasted. No matter how much he wants to change his circumstances, his time is wasted.

"Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven." -Matthew 5:16 

Consider your ways. Search your heart.

What hinders you from shining God's light in a dark world? Are you taking every thought captive, every attitude, every habit, and making it obedient to Christ?

Abide in Me and you will bear much fruit.

The God Who Burdens

"Sometimes I'm so afraid," Liza whispered. "I'm a Christian. I'm supposed to have faith and joy and peace. Well, I don't, so what does that mean? What am I supposed to do? Keep on pretending?"

I have seen the burden God has laid on men.  He has made everything beautiful in its time.  He has also set eternity in the hearts of men;  yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. (Ecclesiastes 3:10-11)

Who is this God who laid such burden on us? What is beautiful about God's people living bloody, broken, confused and afraid? Can we trust a merciful, loving God when we cannot fathom what in the world He is doing?

Like a jar of river water all shaken up, the burdens of our noisy, demanding circumstances swirl around us. The world is reeling out of control, a tornado of hopelessness and conflict. As the chaos and mud sling us about, the turmoil grows. Our vision is lost. Our voices add to the clutter.

A jar of shaken sediment settles only when it is still. So, also, God waits for us to be still before He whispers to us.

I must be still for the sediment in my life to settle and my mind to become clear. Good decisions come from stepping out of the whirlwind of clutter in our lives so we can hear the voice of truth. Only in quietness and trust will we find our strength.

Be still and know that I am God.

 

A God for Emersyn

The ending of the story was already written. A carefully formed nest lay fallen from my redbud tree, beside it a shiny, turquoise egg. A frail, broken, newborn robin lay on the cold, rain-soaked ground, abandoned, apparently forgotten. Heartbeats pulsed visibly beneath translucent pink skin, slowing as the bird blindly twisted his body, hopelessly fighting for life. I held the bird in my hands, powerless to save it, yet comforted to know the truth as I placed it beneath the soft, green Lamb's Ear leaves. The God who created this bird sees every moment of its life. It is tenderly loved.

Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? - Matthew 6:2

A fragile, newborn Christian is entering a life of faith this week. I accidentally gave her a wrong phone number for my cell. I've been concerned because, while she can email me, I'm not as immediately available to her as I had hoped. She's a survivor of a cold, pain-soaked life and I feel powerless as I wait to hear from her. It comforts me as I realize she knows the truth. The God who created her sees every moment of her life. She is tenderly loved.

There is a God who sees and is available always. There is a God who is able to do more than we ask or imagine He can do. There is a God who loves with an everlasting love.


Emersyn was born into our family this week, and, after months of waiting, she has arrived wrapped in warmth, safe from the storms of life and cherished beyond measure. Her body was covered with prayer multiple times daily as God knit her together in my niece's womb. As her story unfolds, I know Emersyn will have disappointments, pain and losses. It comforts me as I realize she will know the truth. The God who created her sees every moment of her life. She is tenderly loved.

The ending of your story is not yet written. Pain and disappointment may have left you broken. You may feel abandoned, apparently forgotten. The God who sees you every moment of your life Is available to wrap you in warmth and hold you in His hands, safe from the storms of life. You are worth more than you realize, cherished beyond measure. You are tenderly loved.

I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have tenderly held you with compassion. -Jeremiah 31:3