Tag: Hezekiah

• Day 22: Comforting

  Posted at 8:23 am by How the Light Gets In, on November 22, 2020

  

  Day 22; Honey shows us how comforting the light can be.

  The old girl reminds me how warm and enveloping light feels. Every day she seeks out the brightest spot and basks in the warmth of it.

  COMFORTING

  Random transition here but – I used to think it was bad to write in my Bible. I thought it somehow disrespected the book or God. Or maybe I just thought it looked messy? Either way. My Bible was crisp and clean.

  Not anymore. Scriptures are underlined, highlighted and circled. There are dates and names scribbled all over it.

  To flip through my Bible and devotionals and read through it all is powerful for me. To then sit with the scriptures that held meaning in the moment feels like basking in comforting light.

  

  I was bitter (and confused and angry) because of all we were going through as a family. I thought I’d been a good Christian and deserved a smooth life because of it.

  Oh, how much I’ve learned and am learning… God is not transactional. This world is broken. Just because I’m a good Jesus follower doesn’t guarantee an easy ride. God is all-powerful but still very present in the most precise of details in my own little life and I’ll never get over it.

  Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, “Remember Lord, how I have walked before you faithfully and with whole hearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly. Before Isaiah had left the middle court, the word of the Lord came to him. “Go back and tell Hezekiah this is what the Lord the God of your father David says, “I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will heal you.”

  2 Kings 20:2-6

  I held onto that promise for another two years.

  Then there’s this. Haha.

  

  Find a cozy, quiet spot and read this from Isaiah 30:15-21.

  

  Find your strength today sitting in quiet stillness. Let the comforting truth that no matter which way you turn, an all-powerful God is beside you whispering the way to go.

  

  Posted in November 2020, Uncategorized | 0 Comments | Tagged 2 Kings 20:2-6, Bible, Comforting, Hezekiah, How the Light Gets In, Isaiah 30:15-21, Jesus Calling, Streams in the Desert

• Hyperalgesia

  Posted at 11:39 pm by How the Light Gets In, on November 12, 2017

  Someone asked me what the worst part of Joseph’s illness was this past year.  In the early days of Joseph being sick, he developed “hyperalgesia.”  Essentially, Joseph’s brain had swollen enough to put his senses in overdrive.  This turned out to be a pretty tough side-effect for all of us.  Think about it… the tv was always too loud.  Our dinner conversations would send him into a fit, covering his ears.  Sunlight was too bright.  He was always freezing or burning up.  But the worst? The worst was his hyper-sense of touch.  All I wanted to do was snuggle with him.  But, just putting my hand on his cheek would make him flinch.  When you’re the type that just wants to hug everything better, hyperalgesia is your #1 enemy.

  And one day I read this from 2 Kings 20.  Hezekiah is facing some tough crap when he says to God, “Remember Lord, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes.”  And, it goes on to say that Hezekiah “wept bitterly.”  See, this is where I would want to hug Hezekiah.  I love that the scriptures tell of real interactions like this with real feelings.  And here is God’s response…

  “I have heard your prayers.   I have seen your tears.  I will heal you.”

  More than once, I doubted the promise of these words.  I doubted God heard me at all.  I wept bitterly like Hezekiah.  I said out loud, “Hey, I’m good. No more testing please!  I know I can’t handle this anymore!!!”

  But this verse holds promise.  The promise of being seen.  You are seen.  You are heard.  Maybe it doesn’t feel that way.  Maybe you feel like you’re the only one.  So say it.  Say it to God.  You know enough about me to know I have said these words to God a) out loud & angry b) kneeling in tears c) in the car, talking like a looney bird d) with friends surrounding me in prayer e) while eating a lot of chocolate f)all of the above AT THE SAME TIME.

  The living word is a reflection of our living God.  Read it and then look around you to see Him.  Because you will.  And then, you will read this verse from Job 42:5 and know it to be true in your very soul.

  “My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you.” 

  Hard things in life can make you flinch at the idea of church, religion, God.  My ears have been hearing about a God I can not describe with physical adjectives like height and weight and hair color.  But I have seen Him.  I have seen God.  And I just want to hug Him.

  Posted in NOVEMBER 2017 | 2 Comments | Tagged 2 Kings 20, brain swelling, Hezekiah, How the Light Gets In, hyperalgesia, I have seen your tears, Job 42:5