Day 25, the light comes in STUNNING but not the way you might expect…
STUNNING
Together, we’ve seen coral sunsets and bursts of light cutting through fog. But we’re going to try something different.
Listening to light is stunning.
It’s like a symphony Just keep listening And pretty soon you’ll start To figure out your part Everyone plays a piece And there are melodies In each one of us Oh it’s glorious
The lyrics shine because words hold power and light.
Hearing music or listening to stories can pull our thoughts with such intensity. They bring back memories. They remind us, teach us, point us, encourage us, warn us.
The Bible is full of stories. Jesus taught with stories.
This particular chapter is called the “Hall of Faith” – here’s why:
Hebrews 11 HALL OF FAITHHebrews 11 HALL OF FAITH
“By Faith” men and women from the Old Testament went through some stuff, right? And then Jesus comes along and connects the Old Testament history to his “walk the walk” practices. And now you and I get to read the history, learn the practices, bumble and walk and succeed and fail and SHARE OUR STORIES. When we connect and share our stories (not just the wins but the losses too) we are linking arms and moving forward “by faith” in light.
And
THAT
takes
my
breath
away.
Open your ears and listen for the light today.
Choose the stories you share at the Thanksgiving table to connect and empower and entertain those around you. And share them
Where the heck are we right now? What is going on?
I feel a little lost in all the Coronavirus updates and state mandated restrictions and empty grocery shelves. It’s all so disorienting.
How are you?
Since you can’t be student, boss, employee, non-teacher, hostess, room-parent, coach… how are you?
It’s weird and slow.
I know. I feel it too. Right now, I want to sit next to you (virtually) and offer you a compass in the chaos.
Because I’ve been here before.
From 2016-2019, we were swirling in a medical mess and I felt lost in a sort of wilderness. Just like you now, I wasn’t able to be all the things I’d signed up for like coach, room mom, hostess, tennis player, volunteer, etc.
My calendar was wiped clean of every layer of identity I’d wrapped myself up in. They were all taken without asking my permission.
As you read this; COVID-19 has wiped your calendar clean. And you didn’t get a say. We’re back to basics with no clear path of what lies ahead. So, what next?
First, let’s get our bearings. Friends, we are IN the wilderness.
And, I can tell you from experience and from reading lots of scripture, the wilderness is where God does His thing.
This is where He works.
Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. – Isaiah 43:19
Rachel Held Evans wrote “…some of Scripture’s most momentous events occur not at the start of a journey, nor at the destination, but in between, in the wilderness.” Inspired: Slaying Giants, Walking on Water and Loving the Bible Again
We are IN BETWEEN right now.
And God is in it with us offering “a way.” In all this uncertainty and pandemonium, why not, WHY NOT invite God into it and ask for direction.
How does this work in real life, like right now? Well, if you were lost in the literal wilderness; you would keep your eyes open for signs to point you in the right direction. Same applies to you and God in the metaphorical wilderness. Really.
Here are a few “signs” in the wilderness to point you in the right direction: Read the Jesus Calling Devotional, sign up for a reading plan on the Holy Bible App, follow Aussie Dave or Priscilla Shirer or Bianca Olthoff or Bishop Jakes on Instagram, listen to 95.1 Shine-FM, look up She Reads Truth and join the community, tune in to mass on Church of the Nativity’s website.
We’re feeling a little lost right now but we have a God who loves to show up IN the wilderness in remarkable ways. He’s full of promise and hope and relief.
Point the compass His way, ask Him for help and TAKE NOTES! {You might not be able to see God in the moment but being able to look back at what you asked for can be a powerful way to see He was working all along.}
Just yesterday, I was journaling about my worry with the news of even more closings and my anxiety over my daily routine being swallowed up with the needs of all the kids home now. The “Jesus Calling “reading for March 18 was from Matthew.
“Refuse to worry about tomorrow, but deal with each challenge that comes your way, one day at a time. Tomorrow will take care ofitself.” – Matt 6:34
I’ve seen it before. I know I’ll see it again and again. You might be lost but you are not alone.
As soon as I found out I was pregnant with a boy (NOT NOW people, this is back in 2004), I began searching for a name with meaning. His name would need to really mean something. It just had to be special.
And we chose, John. John means “God has been gracious.” As soon as that 9 pound boy was in my arms, I could feel the weight of his name and everything he meant in every ounce.
Here’s the quick backstory: I lost one baby in 2001. I gave birth to our beautiful Lauren in 2002. In the years after, I would have three more miscarriages. One of those pregnancies was an ectopic that ruptured and almost took me with it. I woke up from that surgery with the doctor at the end of my bed telling me, “You’re lucky you made it and you’re lucky you have one child. You will not be able to have any more kids.”
There’s so much pain in that handful of sentences; mourning and bleeding and darkness on repeat. The “no more kids” was a kick in the gut I will never forget. Finding out I was pregnant and then growing that boy inside me felt like the longest 9 months. So, his name needed to be special. I wanted it to be a reflection and reminder of the gift.
It’s important to celebrate the good stuff. I have a golden Hooray banner for that, remember?
I’ve come to believe that you need to mark the hard stuff. It is just as important to stick a flag in the ground where you’ve struggled to say VICTORY or HOLY SH– or NEVER AGAIN!
“It’s worth noting that at the culmination of nearly every wilderness journey is a naming.” It’s important to “name each wilderness, to mark those spots where, when all hope seemed lost, we encountered God.” Good, right?
I read this and underlined it immediately on page 50 of “Inspired: Slaying Giants, Walking on Water and Loving the Bible again” by Rachel Held Evans. This book should be in your Amazon cart, now. I would lend you my copy but there are lines and scribbled notes all over it.
The last time I wrote here I was getting past my anger and trying to move into ownership of my body and my pain. Gosh, that is soooooo much easier to type than actually DO. Something my therapist suggested is acknowledge the pain when it starts to creep back. Face it, call it out, breathe through it and stretch. My usual reaction to the pain was get sad, angry, curl up on the couch and take the Gabapentin.
Working through the pain has felt like a “wilderness” to me, has meant honesty to see it, humility to face it, strength to stare it down, endurance to breathe through it. And I’m doing it. And I haven’t taken ONE Gabapentin since I last wrote 49 days ago.
In the past 49 days, I have gone to camp with middle schoolers and run all over doing selfie scavenger hunts to late night pizza parties, I’ve been to the beach jumping in the waves with all FIVE of my kids, I’ve been hiking with friends, I’ve hosted a few big family events; and not taken one Gabapentin. I need a flag with a good name on it and I want to stick it in the ground.
Because I am a human and you are too, I know we have pain in common.
What does your wilderness look like?
You have a flag in your hand because God put it there.
He wants to see you out.
“Forget the former things, do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” – Isaiah 43:18-19
Here’s my version:
Come on! Why are you looking back? Don’t get stuck!
Name your pain. And let’s get moving!
God doesn’t want you hurting.
And He doesn’t just want to make some old crap better. God wants to make something TOTALLY new.
Don’t you see it? He’s making a way in your wilderness.
There is a way out.
Listen for that voice. And grab your flag.
(Also, there should be a flag for the Wilderness that is “Age 13.” And I would like to bop the now 13 year old gift from God over the head with it.)
how the light gets in 