how the light gets in

Category: APRIL 2020

• Follow/Unfollow

  Posted at 3:54 pm by How the Light Gets In, on April 25, 2020

  Here’s an activity from the first graders homework this week:

  

  We were hunting through the house to make a list of anything we could find with the /or/ sound. It didn’t take very long to make the list.

  What catches me by surprise though is how the lesson stuck.

  At the end of the day, Bean just kept following the lesson, adding more and more words to the list.

  Let’s follow this another direction, shall we? We’re taking a sharp turn from 1st grade phonics to your heart.

  What are you following these days? Now that we’re all under “stay at home” orders with virtual learning throwing us into a literal tailspin. What and who are you following?

  I ask because this pandemic – whether it’s the stillness and quiet, the uncertainty, the anxiety, the loss and loneliness – it’s going to push you to self-soothe. So what are you looking for to ease the pain, to pass the time?

  I ask because of these words…

  Above all, guard the affections of your heart, for they affect all that you are.

  Proverbs 4:23 TPT

  God’s words always lead back to Him. They’re powerful that way. He is powerful that way.

  The problem is I don’t always follow.

  I do follow a lot of people and apps and videos. All those voices can end up pushing God out of the way.

  But, the practice of reading His word and looking for it, always leads me back to Him.

  This week COVID-19 hit my family with some significant loss (let’s leave it at that) and I was heartbroken. We went for a walk. I got a good cry in.

  And then, I sat down on my phone and scrolling through account after account, double tapping mindlessly through my grief. It did nothing.

  Annoyed with myself, I went to wash the dishes.

  Right in front of me, in a tiny clay pot, was this:

  

  As soon as I spotted that itty bitty heart pushing up through the dirt, it reminded me of a God who sees me and loves me.

  Did God bend that sprout into a heart shape just for me? I like to think so.

  Guard the affections of your heart because they affect all that you are. There’s power in the choices you get to make, the accounts you follow. Choose wisely. I am not saying they all need to be Jesus accounts but are they making you laugh, building you up, teaching you something, encouraging you, leading you to a better you?

  You – YOU – open the door from the inside. You decide who and what comes in.

  Guard your precious heart.

  Posted in APRIL 2020, Uncategorized | 2 Comments | Tagged coronavirus, Follow, Heart, How the Light Gets In, Phonics, Proverbs 4:23

• The Blursday Blues

  Posted at 7:20 am by How the Light Gets In, on April 7, 2020

  I just don’t know what day it is anymore.

  Every morning, Jason says, “This is just like Groundhogs Day.” Every morning. It will happen today. I can guarantee it. As he’s pouring his coffee into my favorite mug, he’ll shake his head side to side and say, “This is just like Groundhogs Day.”

  What fun things do you look forward to every day?

  When the people ask me what’s for dinner; I simply don’t know anymore. The “this is fun and different, don’t worry everything is fine” phase is uhhh over.

  I’m pouting and putting ear plugs on my shopping list because I wake up to the same bird singing it’s deet-deet-deeeeet song at 4:58 every morning to start the same “This is just like Groundhogs Day” day over again.

  Oh no wait, this week is different because the 3 younger ones start virtual learning.

  It’s hard work being a human being right now. I don’t know what day it is. God gave me a lot of gifts but teaching is not one of them.

  There are 7 humans plus a dog in this house, all the time. We’re all processing different losses at different times and grieving them very differently. That being said, last week was especially hard because the senior may actually not get a prom, the middle can’t be with her besties, the youngest loved her first Zoom call playdate but ached for her buddy, Jason was restricted to emergency patients only and I was sick.

  My doctor prescribed Doxycycline and I was taking Gabapentin for my pain. Not only was I hurting and sick but getting so ticked off because usually (a word that feels heavy with golden predictability) USUALLY when I hurt, when I want peace, when I want to recharge; I go sit by the water. I love hearing it. I love feeing small near it. But the POLICE DO NOT CROSS yellow tape across each and every entry point to water was enough to break me.

  

  AND THIS IS HOW GOD SHOWED UP ON A BLURSDAY:

  Jenna and I were dm’ing on Instagram and I was telling her how sad I was about the water.

  

  Here’s the video she sent. Listen carefully.

  I never realized that before. Had you? God’s voice is the same in the water and in the wind. That’s the thing about God; always the same.

  Do you read the “Streams in the Desert” devotional? If not, now is a good time to start. It’s a deep one but we’re living in a trench-like world where stats of life and death blur with images of masked faces and loneliness is a thick blanket on us all. Hold on, I need to take a deep breath.

  Okay, so the “Streams in the Desert” reading for April 4 reads:

  Once our eyes are opened by God, we will see all the events of our lives, whether great or small, joyful or sad, as a “chariot” for our souls. Everything that comes to us becomes a chariot the moment we treat it as such. On the other hand, even the smallest trial may become an object crushing everything in its path into misery and despair if we allow it. The difference then becomes a choice we make.

  “Streams in the Desert” Hannah Whitall Smith p.142

  The scripture offered at the top of the reading is from 2 Kings 6:17

  

  This “chariot” over instagram with Jenna reinforces to me that God is still here. God is still good. God is still showing up. God is still super creative in trying to get my attention.

  Knowing that God is real and good and steady and true; that helps me. Does it help you?

  It’s Blursday friends. Here we go again. The coffee is brewed and about to be poured, the laptops are charged for another virtual learning session and today I’m going to keep my eyes open. I pray you keep your eyes open too and can hear/see/believe/know God is here for you whatever day it is.

  Posted in APRIL 2020 | 0 Comments | Tagged 2 Kings 6:17, Blursday Blues, coronavirus, Groundhogs Day, How the Light Gets In, Streams in the Desert