Sunday, September 25, 2016

(End)ure

So, there's this song you've probably heard. We sing it in church, we hear it on the radio. The song quotes Psalm 30:5 as it says this:

There may be pain in the night, but joy comes in the morning.

You may be like me, walking through a season of hardship and pain. You may take great solace in hearing that joy will come again, in the morning.

You may also be like me when you ask, "Lord, it's been a pretty long night. This night is straight up out of Alaska. When will morning come?"

I asked God this yesterday as I was driving to the studio and the answer He sent me was plain and clear and loud and NOT AT ALL WHAT I WANTED TO HEAR:

Endure.

One word.

Off I go to the studio, meditating on this word, trying to recall scripture that contains this word.

I do what any good artist does and I decide to paint this word. It comes out looking like this:


Hmmm...okay. What next? I put it to the side. I've got things to do, people coming in, classes to teach.

A few hours later I come back to my painting and God whispers, What do you see?

Do you see it, friend?

End. Staring at me plain as day as it sits at the beginning of the word. 

Your enduring will come to an end.

I don't pretend to know when or how. And I do know there's pain. But I also know God has promised joy in the morning. 

I notice this as the colors reflect back to me in orange and yellows, the colors of a glorious sunrise. The colors I thought I had just randomly chosen.

Joshua 1:9 tells us to "be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened or dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go." This includes these seasons of long-night darkness. 

Joshua goes on to tell his people this:

The LORD your God is providing you a place of rest and will give you this land.

Our morning is coming. One day our mourning will be over. I don't know the whens, the whys, or the hows. But I do know as sure as the sun will rise in the east tomorrow morning, God is faithful to His Word. 

And our enduring will end.

Sunday, September 18, 2016

Rest.

I'm tired.

I'm the kind of tired that shows up on your face. In moments of where did those lines come from? And when did I start looking my age? I'm supposed to be perpetually 25.

This kind of tired really has nothing to do with the heaviness of my eyelids or the aches in my body. My heart is tired. My mind is tired. Life is good, but life is complicated. Because, well, the world is complicated. The world is imperfect and is full of imperfect people.

That's the recipe of life - 1 cup of good with a pinch of complicated and a heaping tablespoon of imperfection.

And that's okay. Jesus Himself told us what to expect from life:

In this world, you will have trouble, but take heart! I have overcome the world.
John 16:33

I'm tired. I need rest.

I don't mean hammock by the ocean rest, either. (Although, if anyone is offering this, I will not refuse. Private message me later.)

I need the kind of rest that calms my heart and my mind. The kind of rest where my soul, the very most inner part of me, takes a big breath and acknowledges her Creator.

Jesus tells me I will have trouble in this world. But He also tells me He has overcome it. He tells me to take heart! Which literally means to be of good cheer.

This cheer we should have isn't something we can create inside ourselves. God has to supply it. Isaiah 30:15 tells us this:

This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says: 
"Only in returning to me and resting in me will you be saved. 
In quietness and confidence is your strength."

The only way I can cure my aching, aging, this-world-is-one-monkey-short-of-a-barrel-crazy is to return. When I return to my God and find rest in His holy, loving, perfect presence I see clearly that Jesus has overcome the crazy. That He has overcome the imperfect. I will come and sit in His presence. I will be quiet, knowing I need only to be and listen and feel loved. And I will be confident that this is enough. That God will take care of all that I need.

Because here my soul turns upward toward it's resting place, it's home.

I'm still going to be tired. My bones and brain and boy-raising heart need to make peace with the fact that this season of life is putting wrinkles on my face and gray in my hair.

But every day I turn to Him, the One who has overcome, and I whisper, "I'm so tired."

Then another whisper comes back in a burst of love and peace:

Then come, dear one. And rest.




Sunday, September 11, 2016

James Week 10 - The Prayer of Faith


Watch what a GREAT videographer my 7 year old son is...
(emphasis on the sarcasm).

Here's our final teaching, a short and sweet message on prayer.
Thanks for letting me spend the summer with you.



Thursday, September 8, 2016

James Week 9 ~ Patience

Those trials you face that crush you and break you and sadden you? Hold steadfast through them, my friend. Because God will repay your loss.