Category: encouragement

Daily Drive-Unshaken

I was gardening a couple of days ago, pulling the mass of weeds that had sprung up around my front planter when I unearthed a tiny little gray snake. Yes, you read that right…a snake. Anyone who knows me will attest that it should have proved to be a very dangerous situation for me. I have some REACTIONS, y’all. Like disproportionate, physical, convulsionary (<— probably not a word but you get the point) reactions when it comes to snakes.

But I live in Texas now, and I guess they are just part of living here. So, last year, being the nature-loving person that I am, I had words with God. I had come across some of these teeny tiny snakes in my yard and researched them to find out that they are bug eaters who get no bigger than earth worms. Rough Earth Snakes, they’re called. And I told God that I thought I could make peace with these rough earth snakes if he would keep the big, I’m-gonna-die-by-seeing-one-because-I’ll-trip-having-a-convulsionary-reaction kind of snakes out of my yard. We made a deal. πŸ™‚

So…when I saw that snake, y’all I swear to you…I picked the darn thing up! I mean, I had leather rose bush trimming gloves that went up to my elbows, but I PICKED. IT. UP.

It was funny though, I was yelling at my kids to come and look and I was so proud of this moment, but I noticed that when I picked up either leg, I was shaking! I was a complete ball of nerves. I was shaking so hard I really thought my knees would buckle. In my head, I was proud and excited, but my body was trembling and fearful and wanted to run. The only way to control the shaking was to keep my feet planted on the ground.

Psalm 16:8 says, β€œI have set the LORD always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.”

These are uncertain times. We can feel anxious about things that are unknown and known. I want to encourge you today to do 3 things:

1. Set your mind. Be steadfast and resolved. Make up your mind that tough stuff may be before you, but you will push through it. You will keep your mind focused on the tasks at hand and take them as they come.

2. Set your heart. Find a centered place of peace within your soul and feed that space. Be good to you. Take time to relax and refresh even though things are a bit chaotic.

3. Set your feet. Fight or flight is real. And let’s be honest, when we’re dealing with uncertainty and things we cannot see, everything within us feels like running. But when you plant your feet firmly on something solid, and stable, and unchanging, and certian, you can build your strength and determination to withstand.

God is your firm foundation and will keep your feet from shaking. Set the Lord before you and stand on what you know about Him. You may feel shakey even still, but He will make you unshakable.

P.S.πŸ‘‡πŸ‘‡πŸ˜³

Love, jewels.

the miracle of the moment.

I have a wandering mind. Can anyone else relate? At any given moment, I have at least a dozen thoughts vying for my attention. And my mind…well, it feels manic, mostly. There are days when I am so lucid. Really. I mean, I can actually have an adult conversation that lasts longer than 20 seconds and really feel big-time smart when we’ve finished. Big. Time. But those days, those moments, are sparse. Maybe all it takes to change that, though, is just a moment.

Sometimes I think that my mind gets so scattered and unorganized because of all the things I want to say or want to do that get put off because I tell myself I don’t have the time to do it right. For me, my desire to make sure I have it just right can take me out of the treasure of the moment into the strain of the of-so-perfect “later” when it really just never gets said or done.

So here I am sitting, on the eve of the first Monday of 2020 deciding to take a moment. Just a moment to reflect on the day, pray, write, and encourge. As many of you, I have looked towards what is ahead for the months to come and I am looking at ways to improve and grow from what I have learned in the months past. I am reminded of how often I have prayed for things to come, but how easily I have been distracted from the paths that the Lord has laid out to accomplish those goals.

The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps. -Proverbs 16:9

Even as I am writing this, I am struggling with feeling that I haven’t said really what I meant to say. But when I lean into the Lord, I am reminded that right now, this is just about being present and surrendered to the moment so that He can start something in me and through me.

So friends, be encouraged to be present. Be encouraged to take a moment. Say what’s on your heart. Accomplish that task. Take something off the backburner. And watch what can happen as all those purposeful moments add up to meaningful steps towards your goals.

-jewels

what doesn’t kill you…

There is a poster on the wall going into the fieldhouse where I work. It says,

“Pain is only weakness leaving the body.”

I had to pass by it a few times before I really stopped to think about it. I get it. It’s an inspirational quote about enduring pain in order to bring about our strength. And it got me thinking about pain on a bigger level. I started to think about what pain was and wasn’t. And ultimately about personal pain.

pain

/pān/

  1. physical suffering or discomfort caused by illness or injury.

There is something very interesting about pain. What’s interesting is that it’s not the thing. What I mean is that we give pain a lot of focus and attention, but pain is really just a sign of something else.

…It is a signal that something is wrong.

…That a system is failing.

…That there is a malfunction of some sort and it is sending out a distress notice

And for the pain-in-the-butt that it is to deal with, it actually is a helper…without it, we most often would never know there is a problem.

The Kill

But we avoid pain at all cost. In fact, as a culture, we’re obsessed with feeling good and living pain-free. We want all gain, no pain. In truth, and if we’re honest, we can be so single-minded in pursuit of a painless life, that we let it affect our faith as well.

I know personally this has been true for me. I have been walking through a very difficult and painful season. And my first and consistent response has been to kill the pain. Smother it. Move past it. Ignore it. Numb it away.

The result? Not the intended “ridding myself” of the pain, but instead a fair amount of bitterness that the discomfort kept returning…and each time worse than the time before. I have been overcome with feelings of frustration at swallowing the bitter pills of avoidance only to watch it return. And each time without taking a closer look at what was causing it.

Breaking Through

Remember, pain reveals. It points to and exposes. And sometimes it takes a very painful experience or set of experiences to expose a very deep wound or very deeply protected problem. Most often it’s those deepest, hidden issues that keep us from moving forward.

But here is what I found.

What I have found is that I had to experience great pain in order to experience a breakthough. Because sometimes it’s the punch that knocks you out that finally shatters the wall that has been holding you back.

That’s not what I wanted. I don’t think that any of us set out looking for a knock-out punch to land us on our behinds. But sometimes we need to actually feel a pain so deep that we can finally be broken and open enough to see what’s going on deep beneath the surface and deal with it.

God in Brokenness

I have heard it said that in God’s economy, the way up is down. What God is teaching me through my own brokenness it that it is necessary to endure the grave if we are to fully realize the resurrection.

You and I will never experience revival in our lives until we first open up to Him in our brokenness. That is the heart of what we read about in the book of James:

Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you (James 4:8–10).

This is not a message that we are usually excited about hearing. Instead of removing pain, we are told to take it on.

I thought my problem was that I was sad and depressed and needed to find my happy place again. But what I am learning is that I had been living for a long time in a place of self-exaltation and I was desperately in need of some humility and a new reliance upon Him.

My heart has been so broken, but it is through this that I have begun to experience a new awakening of my soul.

My brokenness became the shattering of my self-will and the complete surrender of my will to the will of God. My brokenness began the process of undoing the self-reliance I had been clinging to and correcting my posture before God. And as the walls of control came down and I began to be broken over my pride, I met God in a whole new way. It was only then that my strength of faith began to return and the pain began to ease.

Is anyone else walking through a painful season? It is not an easy one. But my prayer is that I can learn to embrace the painful seasons as necessary to break down strongholds in my life. Just as the way up is down, the way to strength is brokenness. So even now, Lord break me even more.

-jewels

it’s who you know.

I am sitting here, in my living room, listening to the symphony playing throughout the house. It is beautiful music. Sweet and deep. But the music is lost on me. As my family plays their nighttime symphony (read: snoring) I am sitting here awake with my thoughts.

My thoughts today have been consumed with a season of great personal frustration. I mean, I don’t know how else to say it, but I am just frustrated. And sad. And annoyed. But mostly frustrated. There is too much to this personal narrative. Far too much to put into words at 2:15 am, but it all rounds out with one big word: REJECTION.

For some context, over the past 8 months, I have submitted over 30 applications for jobs, had 3 interviews, and have received at least 10 letters of rejection. Apparently I don’t have the right credentials, the right experience, or know the right person. So this is, on the surface, about the overwhelming frustration I am experiencing from not being able to

GET A STINKING JOB!!!!!!!

Sorry I yelled at you. That wasn’t very nice.

But this is also tangled up in deeper stuff of moving halfway across the country, leaving our family and friends, feeling out of place, and still not having a community. So the feeling that seeps down is rejection.

I have never found that word to be so real. Of course I have experienced rejection, but it typically has a way of not making it past my top layer. I can remember so many times of feeling rejected from one thing or another. And there were tears. A great many deep sobs and snotty noses. So don’t get me wrong, I have experienced rejection. But those tears always served to bathe away the residue of those experiences and push me towards what was next.

But what I am walking through right now is so very different. This journey has pushed itself into a much deeper place than I have ever felt it before. My tears have lost their cleansing properties and the rejection seems to have taken up residence in my soul. I want it out.

Tonight as I was laying in bed trying to find sleep and ruminating on all of this junk, these words came softly to mind:

I lift up my eyes to the hills.
From where does my help come?
My help comes from the Lord,
who made heaven and earth…

Those are the first verses to a chapter in the Bible, Psalm 121, memorized long ago. The chapter is a song of inspiration and motivation and reminder of God’s provision and protection. But something stood out to me as the words came to me. It’s easy to say things to myself or to others who are experiencing difficult stuff like, “God holds the future,” or “God will take care of us,” or “God will help you through it.” And the focus is always on what God will do.

But what is really striking, when I get right down to it, is that I know God. I know God. And more than that, I am not rejected by Him. I lift my eyes to Him and He sees me.

That sounds so clichΓ© and simple and completely church-y to say. But it is a profound reminder to my aching soul that I am connected to the All Powerful. To the Creator of Everything. To the One who holds the stars. And that doesn’t give me a sense that He is going to fix it all or do anything for me. That’s what’s so incredible about this.

I think we always look to God as some genie who’s going to work it out for us. But tonight, I am making no assertion. I don’t believe that having bigger faith or bigger prayers will get me where I am trying to be in the job world. Nor do I believe that calling out to Him is going to magically make friends appear on my doorstep with casseroles and a ready made girls’ night. I just don’t think that’s how it works.

But in simply remembering that I know Him, I am suddenly feeling peace bathe and soothe the sting of rejection. I am connected to the Lord, who made Heaven and Earth. So while my mind struggles through the frustration that is plaguing me in this season, I will put my soul to rest, and hopefully find sleep tonight, with 2 things:

…a reminder that the Lord sees me and knows me….

…and the sounds of my beautiful blessings playing their symphony.

-Jewels