Worrying

                                              

                                                                      

                                                                       Today I am thankful. 

Thankful for the Lord's amazing faithfulness and for all the lessons He has taught me that have brought me into a fuller and more peace-filled life. I am currently in a season of immense blessing. Years of prayers on different subjects have been answered and all I can do is stand in awe of the movements of The Lord. I recently started a full-time job working from home and I continue to homeschool so blogging has to fit in through the cracks. Unless The Lord smacks me with something overwhelming on my heart, I plan on recycling old posts. I don't mind, I like reflecting on what He has taught me - because I never get it the first time, or the second or the third...  So I hope you will still join me and enjoy looking through the lessons learned. 

A post from 2013:

Life has been stressful the last couple of months.  My husband has had some health issues that we have yet to find the root cause.  The next two weeks are full of busyness and as they've come closer I have found myself filled with dread.  One of my friend's texted me the other day to check in on me and I was going to text her back that "I just want to close my eyes and fast-forward through the next two weeks."  But as I went to write it, I felt a little check in my spirit and I was reminded of what the Lord has been teaching me over the last few weeks.

For the last month, my daily prayer time included the following verses:

Remember my affliction and my bitterness, •

the wormwood and the gall!

But this I call to mind, •

and therefore I have hope:

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, •

his mercies never come to an end;

They are new every morning; •

great is your faithfulness.

‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, •

‘therefore I will hope in him.’

The Lord is good to those who wait for him, •

to the soul that seeks him.

It is good that we should wait quietly•

for the salvation of the Lord.

For the Lord will not reject for ever; •

though he causes grief, he will have compassion,

According to the abundance of his steadfast love; •

for he does not willingly afflict or grieve anyone.

Lamentations 1.12, 16a,b; 3.19, 21-26, 31-33

Reading and praying those verses everyday has been great preparation my heart and mind.  As each day came it was tolerable and actually a lot of days were for the most part good - but no matter what they were all filled with grace.  Grace of a handwritten note of love, emailed prayers and encouragement from friends, pulling out a freezer meal made by friend for a rainy day, texting my mom back and forth with notes of prayer requests, watching my daughter snuggle close to her dad, getting Starbucks dropped off just because... the list goes on and on.  

So as I thought about these verses and these moments of grace - I knew without a shadow of a doubt that God's mercies are new every morning and that He had been faithful to me everyday.  I also knew that it was safe for me to rest in His steadfast love.  But yet there were many moments when I thought about the "possibilities of the future" that hopelessness would begin to settle into my heart and then it dawned on me: Worrying is when I create a future void of God's grace. 

When I reflected on the past and I lived in the present I could see the grace of God and just as He promised His grace was sufficient in my weakness.  However, when I looked to the future it was bleak and it appeared too hard to walk through.  The missing component of all my future fears was that reality that God was still going to be present, able and loving no matter what happens.  As I venture forward, I have heard the whisper of God that He is a safe place for me to put my hope in and He will be faithful to my family every step of the way.  So I am leaving tomorrow in His hands and resting in the grace that He has provided for today.

In Christ, 

Jaime

360 Vision

As Christians, we have the benefit of 360 vision, to bring us through each and everyday.  We have the past saints to look at for inspiration and understanding of how the Lord moves and weaves in an individual's life.  We have the living and active Word of God today - that moves and interacts with us.  Finally, we have the book of Revelation that gives us a glimpse of the reality of our future.  So today, I would like to interact with this 360 vision to help us to see how God invites us to walk with Him into a life that lacks nothing.

James 1:2-4

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds,3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

Psalm 23

The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.

2 He makes me lie down in green pastures,

he leads me beside quiet waters,

3 he refreshes my soul.

He guides me along the right paths

for his name’s sake.

4 Even though I walk

through the darkest valley,

I will fear no evil,

for you are with me;

your rod and your staff,

they comfort me.

Revelation 9:16

Never again will they hunger;

never again will they thirst.

The sun will not beat down on them,’

nor any scorching heat.

17For the Lamb at the center of the throne

will be their shepherd;

‘he will lead them to springs of living water.‘And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

These are all familiar Scripture passages, but for this post, I appreciated reflecting on the connections between them.  We all love the imagery of Psalm 23: being led beside quiet waters, having our souls restored.  Yet we don't always find ourselves in those situations.  Sometimes we find ourselves faced with the valley of the shadow of death...Then we are confronted with James - "Consider it PURE JOY, whenever you face trials of many kinds..."

How? Why? 

This is where the 360 vision comes in handy (you can start from any spot) but for this post we will start at Revelation 9.   See the Lamb, seated on the throne and what does He promise to be for us - our Shepherd.  We are reminded in this very picture, that He, himself, the Lamb, walked through a very dark valley of death to get to His throne.  We see His promise to us is to Shepherd us and one day to wipe every tear from our eyes.  We get to step into life with Him, from this place of trust knowing that He sees, He knows, He understands and He offers to come along with us.

From this vantage point we can pan back to present day: consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds... It develops perseverance/ patience and you will NOT lack anything...

Pan over to Psalm 23 - the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want...

Do you see the circle? Do you see the benefits we receive from our current position? 

The Message ends Psalm 23 with this:

Your beauty and love chase after me

    every day of my life.

I’m back home in the house of God

    for the rest of my life.

So my brothers and sisters in Christ - consider it pure joy - no matter what you are going through, because the Lord is your Shepherd.  He is walking beside you, leading you and guiding you with love and beauty.  Sometimes by streams of water and sometimes He is walking with us through a valley, a shadow, a place of trial and uncertainty.  The path may be unclear to you - but the end destination is clear and sure.  There will be a day when He will wipe every tear from your eyes.  

You are not alone and you were never asked to go through this life alone.  Lean on your Good Shepherd today - the Lamb of God who alone is worthy.

In Christ,

 

Photo courtesy Melanie Guest Photography

Finding Peace in Today

                                              

As I reflect back on the theme of my heart last year, I feel that the Lord was teaching me how to trust Him more deeply ~ in each and every situation ~ the good, the bad and the ugly.  And as I've paid attention to my heart these first few days of the New Year I've noticed a natural tendency towards stress and intensity.  This seems quite strange since I don't have "anything I have to do."  Obviously, my daily life has responsibility and in many ways I'm my own boss, but apparently I'm a tough taskmaster.  But as I went through Daily Prayer this morning, I was overwhelmed by God's invitation towards a different way of living in the midst of the real world.  Since I've learned to trust that His heart towards me is good, then what... how can that affect my daily life?  And I realized that the answer to that is that I have a different taskmaster: Christ.

Here are some of the verses from Daily Prayer that encouraged me that this exchange is worth it:

Psalm 127:1

Unless the Lord builds the house,

    those who build it labour in vain.

Unless the Lord guards the city,

    the guard keeps watch in vain.

In the past, I have seen the reality of me trying to build my own house and it truly was in vain (Draw Me a Map) but in the last 3 years, I've experienced the sweet reality of letting the Lord build my marriage and it is beautiful; watching how Christ has put us together to work together in a way that brings life, love and beauty to each other, to our family and to His kingdom.

Psalm 127:2

It is in vain that you rise up early

    and go late to rest,

eating the bread of anxious toil;

    for he gives sleep to his beloved.

I love sleep, especially refreshing sleep.  But this verse especially reminded me of His invitation to us to be called His Beloved.  Since I am His Beloved - it should and does make a difference in how my life is guided, directed and lived out.

Psalm 131

O Lord, my heart is not lifted up,

    my eyes are not raised too high;

I do not occupy myself with things

    too great and too marvelous for me.

2 But I have calmed and quieted my soul,

    like a weaned child with its mother;

    my soul is like the weaned child that is with me.

These verses captured the cry of my heart for this year.  A satisfied child leaning quietly, in satisfied trust against her mother.  The lessons learned from the past year, on how to trust that God's heart towards me is good, truly good is the groundwork that was laid to begin the act of resting. 

Ruth 2:14-15

Then she said, ‘May I continue to find favour in your sight, my lord, for you have comforted me and spoken kindly to your servant, even though I am not one of your servants.’

14 At mealtime Boaz said to her, ‘Come here, and eat some of this bread, and dip your morsel in the sour wine.’ So she sat beside the reapers, and he heaped up for her some parched grain. She ate until she was satisfied, and she had some left over.

In the book of Ruth, Boaz is a foreshadowing picture of Christ and as I read this passage, I was overwhelmed by the picture of communion as a response to Ruth's cry for favor. "Take the bread and dip it in wine." She eats, until she is satisfied and then has some left over.  Every Sunday at my church, before we go up to communion we hear the words:

 Take and eat

this in remembrance that Christ died for thee, and feed on

him in thy heart by faith, with thanksgiving.

These words remind me that participation in communion is a reminder that Christ and His presence is daily needed and available for my sustenance and satisfaction.   Looking at this picture of Boaz coming to Ruth in the middle of her work day and giving her everything she needs and more is a beautiful picture of what Christ does for us ~ today.

These verses have overwhelmed me with joy to release the reigns of today to the right taskmaster.  The verses from Ruth show me that Christ can come in the middle of my day and satisfy.  His reality and His presence weaves into every moment: the building of my house, the work of my hands, my sleep, my relationships and my meals.

Thank you Christ for who you are today. 

________

If you are looking for a way to get into the word of God this year, Daily Prayer has been a beautiful way that I have been able to engage in the Word, in a life-giving way.  Because I love it so much, I have added their feed to the bottom of my website.  But no matter what - know that He loves you and that He will walk with you today.

In Christ,

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!

First of all, I wanted to take a moment to thank each one of you who take time to read my blog; it means a lot to me. 

Secondly, I wanted to share a song that I heard during my Christmas Eve service last night. It echoes the sentimentality of my last post:

http://youtu.be/YmZlYiMCvS

Lyrics can be found here: Cry of a Tiny Babe

Enjoy & Merry Christmas,

The part of the story that never makes it into Christmas pagents

There is a part of the Christmas story that doesn't fit into our nicely packaged Nativity scenes.  A part of the story for which no songs are written.  A part of the story that we skip over on our Christmas morning readings.  A part we'd rather not think about...

Yet Scripture includes it, and prophets prophesied about it and it is, in fact, part of the story:

Matthew 20:16-18

16 When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. 17 Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:

18 

“A voice is heard in Ramah,

    weeping and great mourning,

Rachel weeping for her children

    and refusing to be comforted,

    because they are no more.”

We leave it out because it stands in stark contrast to the joy of the season. It makes us uncomfortable.  There are no warm fuzzies attached to it.  There are no theological statements that make the uncomfortable questions in our minds cease.

But maybe, just maybe, we do ourselves a disservice by leaving it out.  Maybe the sweet, perfect picture we paint ends up excluding the harsh reality of the world that Jesus willing chose to come into. And we could stop and say, "That's not fair.  Why didn't the angel warn all the mothers?  Did God only care for His own son?"  

But we know there is more to the story and that there is a point when God does not spare His own Son and does let Him fully live out the depths of the evilness of this world.  And we forget that Joseph and Mary did, in fact, need to flee.  Immediately before this passage in Matthew 2:13-15 Joseph has to flee in the middle of the night with Mary and Jesus to Egypt. Jesus did not live in a magical bubble where no sadness, fear or pain never crossed His path.  No, God came down in flesh, to live with us, Emmanuel, to share in our burdens, our trails and our pain so we could trust Him, so we could turn to Him in our deepest moments of need, so that we could know that He truly does care:

Hebrews 4:15-16

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. 16 Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

This part of the story shows that God is fully aware of the darkness this world contains.  This part of the story, reminds us that the intersection between humanity & God's full redemption is still being worked out.  This part of the story reminds us that Jesus walked in the real world, our world and that somehow in God's mystery that even in the darkest of nights, Emmanuel, is with us.  It reminds us that there is a reason why Jesus came.  Finally it reminds us that today, in our darkest night, God is with us, and that the last chapter is yet to be written.

In the midst of the Christmas story,

Innocence is lost.

Shining eyes - this world no longer sees.

A cry pierces the silent night,

"God don't you see?"

It echoes on and on...

A sweet baby rests on His mother's chest

as in the chill of the night he is whisked

 away to safety. 

Does He too know that there will be a day

when He says,

"God, why have you forsaken me?"

A cry pierces the silent night,

"God don't you see?"

It echoes on and on...

till it reaches

Calvary.

In Christ,