The Main Thing

If you are anything like me, you are currently experiencing some of your hardest days. Since my husband's accident 2 weeks ago, our lives have been turned upside down. I'm not sure if I'm coming or going or just dreaming (I wish!). I've never been so tired, so discouraged, or felt so out of control for a very long time. For sure, not ever in my adult life.

And yet, life has never been simpler. I remember a long time ago a youth pastor said these words to me: The Main Thing is to keep The Main Thing The Main Thing. Profound, right? As I sit here tonight after spending most of the day in tears, I say yes, that is some profound thinking right there.

I've cancelled my calendar for six months out. I've had to back out of commitments I've made. I have no idea what tomorrow holds.

But I'm at peace. Totally secure in the knowledge that God is on His Throne, that none of this is a surprise to him. I am not alone, not abandoned. He is everything I need. I don't have to do this on my own. And if I look hard, I can see so many blessings coming out of these circumstances. I can see so many prayers being answered in a way only God could pull off.

So I challenge you tonight to look really hard at your life. What are you thankful for? Start telling God. Despite your situation, what blessings are coming your way? Start telling God. Those things are there. I know they are. If I can see blessings in this mess, so can you.

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Music Monday: Run by Pink

"All this time I swear I'll never waste it
All your smiles I'm always gonna save them
Put it in the back of my mind
Whenever I'm away from you"

Quote of the Week: Be The Kind of Person You Want to Be With

 

“Be the kind of person you would like to be with. Some people come into our lives, make footprints on our hearts and we are never the same. People are lonely because they build walls instead of bridges.” 

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Medicine

Over the past week I have become well acquainted with medicine as both a practice and a drug. As my husband was lying in a hospital bed after fracturing his hip, I couldn't help but muse about medicine. Granted, I was overtired, under a lot of stress, and may or may not have lost touch with reality for a moment. But still I kept thinking about medicine and its practical application to my life. Here's what I came up with:

1. Medicine is yucky. It doesn't taste good, which is why the song from Mary Poppins is so important to know: Just a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down....
2. Medicine is inconvenient. It's never easy to either obtain or stay regular on almost any type of medicine. It requires a doctor's visit, a visit to the pharmacy and usually some outlay of money. Additionally, it usually has to be taken or ingested in some form or fashion. Just because we go to the pharmacy and get the medicine doesn't mean we will get well. Which leads me to my third point.
3. Medicine is necessary. My sweet husband was in loads of pain and needed some relief. Also, the doctor needed him to heal without his blood clotting, so added a blood thinner to his regimen.

So where am I going with this? Where I usually go. Into my head and down into my spirit. I am a broken person. I need healing. I need medicine but not any that can be bought. I need God's healing in my broken places. I need his touch in the dark places in my heart. I need his hope where I feel none in my soul. I need that kind of medicine.

But the truth is that God's medicine is no different than the other kind. It's yucky. And hard. And it hasn't taken me too many days of living this way to ask God to please give me my life of ease back. I know there will be blessings on the other end. In fact, I am finding things everyday to thank God for.

This medicine has been inconvenient. I have had to cancel things on my calendar this week that won't happen for months. But because of the nature of this injury and impending surgery, I have no control over timing and need to be available for my husband.

Finally, this medicine is necessary. I don't know the whys or the hows or the impact to the future, but I know there is purpose in the timing of this injury. I may not know for a long time or I may never know. But I have the hope that this reordering of our lives is for a reason.

Is God speaking to you today? Is he tugging at your heart to do something new or different? I know change is hard and it's never a really good time. But I challenge you to go ahead and dive in and see what he has for you.

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Music Monday: Sweet Child O' Mine by Guns N Roses

"She's got a smile it seems to me
Reminds me of childhood memories
Where everything
Was as fresh as the bright blue sky
Now and then when I see her face
She takes me away to that special place
And if I'd stare too long
I'd probably break down and cry
Oh, oh, oh
Sweet child o' mine
Oh, oh, oh, oh
Sweet love of mine
She's got eyes of the bluest skies
As if they thought of rain
I hate to look into those eyes
And see an ounce of pain
Her hair reminds me of a warm safe place
Where as a child I'd hide
And pray for the thunder
And the rain
To quietly pass me by"

Quote of the Week: I Am Loveable!

 

“I can only love myself as much as I believe I am lovable.”

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Music Monday: Every Storm by Gary Allen

 

 

"Every storm runs, runs out of rain
Just like every dark night turns into day
Every heartache will fade away
Just like every storm runs, runs out of rain"

Quote of the Week: Conquering Fear

 

 

 

“Let me not pray to be sheltered from dangers, but to be fearless in facing them. Let me not beg for the stilling of my pain, but for the heart to conquer it.”

 

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Word of the Year: More

So the trend of picking a word for the year has finally reached me. To date, my friends have chosen faith, intention and longings. Despite the fact that I love words, I have been a spectator to this sport for the past few years. Sure I have looked at this word or thought of that word, but I've never really picked one to be my "word of the year".

How does one go about picking a word to think on throughout the course of a whole year anyway? How do my friends come up with these words? Of course faith and hope and love are all good words. But there are lots of good words that one could choose. Depending on the day or time of year or weather, Webster is full of ideas for the moment.

But that's not the type of word some seem to choose. Like at my church, our theme for the whole year is Surrender. So according to my pastor, everything we are studying this year we are doing so through the lens of surrendering.

So, with all of that being said, I am choosing the word more for this year. What's funny about that word to me is that I live in an affluent area where more seems to be the norm for everyone. But that's not where my heart is. My more goes along with the Sonicflood song More love, more power:

More love, more power, more of you in my life;

And I will worship you with all of my heart,

I will worship you with all of my strength,

I will worship you with all of my life;

You are my God.

The place that I currently find myself is one where I see how utterly destitute I am without the God the of the Bible to help me. It would seem that the longer I know Jesus, the more right I have to feel superior. But the truth is the longer I know Jesus, the more clearly I see my own depravity, my own wickedness, my own propensity to be hurtful and judgemental and morally filthy.

Because of that, I need more of God. More of Jesus. And more of the Holy Spirit to guide me and teach me. I am redeemed. I am the righteousness of Christ. But because I still walk on this earth, I am nowhere near perfect. I need more of Him in every part of my life.



So do you have a word for the year? If so, what is it and why did you choose that particular word?

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Music Monday: Till My Last Day by Justin Moore

"Til my last day
Til my last breath
Of everyone that can, I can love you the best
Til my last day, I'll be lovin' you
All the way up, til they lay me down
Six feet under, the cold hard ground
Til my last day, I'll be lovin' you"

Quote of the Week: Rock Bottom

 

“And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.”

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A Fresh Start

Welcome to a new year. A fresh start. A blank page. Apart from football, parades and the aftermath of Christmas, now is an excellent time to start planning for your own fresh start. I'm not talking about the typical resolutions that fade well before February is even over. I'm talking about turning over a complete new leaf.

This is the time to let go of the past, to let go of what has come before and walk boldly into your future and your new life. The book of Isaiah puts it like this:

Forget about what’s happened;
    don’t keep going over old history.
Be alert, be present. I’m about to do something brand-new.
    It’s bursting out! Don’t you see it?
There it is! I’m making a road through the desert,
    rivers in the badlands.    Isaiah 43:19

Did you read that? I'm about to do something brand new? How exciting is that? I don't know about you friends, but I'm ready for new life. I'm ready for him to do something exciting and healing. I'm ready for him to bring rivers of life-giving water into the dark, dry places in my soul.

I promise you the God of the Bible is at work all around you. I promise that he wants to do a new thing in your life. Give your mind over to him so he can change it and make it new. Trust him with your heart to heal it and not to hurt it anymore. This is how you can move forward. This is how you can let go of the hurt and walk into healing.

Happy fresh start.