When life covers you up with a little soot

Sometimes, there are those days when you are required to put your big girl pants on, gulp hard, and just hold it together.  My recent kitchen remodel taught me that.  But recently I have reinforced my bravery in holding it all together.    

It's good to prepare for times like these so you know how to respond when life ushers the opportunity to be brave at any time.  About six weeks ago, my daughter and her family suffered through a house fire...twice.  They were coming home from church on a bright Sunday afternoon to find the firemen working on their house, extinguishing a fire that started from a failed power strip.

No one was hurt and we are all grateful for that.  Absolutely, no question.  However, the same embers rekindled the fire again, the very next morning blazing more damage to the roof, it's structure and all of the upstairs living spaces.

Yes, they have home owners insurance.  One of the bedrooms affected belonged to 6-month old Clarke.  She will miss out on growing up in that nursery that held so much love for her.  The attic, all the bedrooms, two bathrooms, and everything included in them, are considered a total loss in this second story home.   As for the lower level, because of the water and smoke damage, those spaces are being restored.  What the fire didn't consume is either burned, melted, smoked like a Thanksgiving turkey or charred.

All their possessions were affected, and the safety of a three-year-old who wants to be a fireman, has been shaken.  In times like these, family circles up to help pick up the pieces.  Initially, I didn't want to go in to see the damage because I didn't want to remember it with all it's soot.  But my son-in-law, Billy the pilot, asked me help move some unaffected belongings to a new rental property.  I was afraid I would lose it right there in the rubble of their lives but I knew I had to be brave.

The smoke aroma immediately filled my nostrils, as the stench was unbearable, as soon as we opened the front door.  I cautiously walked up the staircase to the charred shell of the house.  The places where we made family memories, new ways to play pretend, to read nap-time books, and where my daughter momma learned to love her little babies...everything I could see was covered in black soot.

Everything....even little Clarke's pink shoes.  That's when everything I was holding together broke a little.  I shed a few tears when I saw their life as I knew it covered with life's soot.  My little Avery talks about the fire everyday, even though he doesn't know the extent of what was really lost.

There are new questions in his mind about the event that has completely robbed him of all his toys and life as he knows it.  It's understandable given the circumstances  his family has endured.

"Does Jesus love us less now that the fire happened?"

I gasped a little when I heard that big question slipping out.  I thought of all the times we must think that about God.  When life slaps, steals, or throws us curve balls, we wonder if God knows or cares about what is plaguing us at the moment.  And then we deal with the fact that everything about us is under God's omniscient presence.

But we still wonder where God is when a tragedy occurs.  And then we wonder...about the depths of God's love for us in spite of what life has presented us with on any given day.

We wonder...where is God in the middle of my cancer, or my marriage that is falling apart, or the debt that keeps pushing us into a dark hole, or the pit of depression our teenagers fight every day, or the bouts with illness after illness, the failing health of our parents, the failing strength of the national budget, or the threat of a pandemic, or the failures of our past that we can't shake.

And then we wonder...about God's love and we wonder why doesn't God intervene when He knew all about it first?  We find ourselves gasping that question when life brings storms, fires, and things not nice or hard.

I waited for Lindsay's answer and she said what a grown up momma could only say.  "Jesus proves His love for us through the people who have helped us so much.  He proved His love by keeping us at church and away from the fire, and how no one was hurt, and everyone is safe and sound.  He showed His love for us by many people who helped us get some new clothes, a safe place to life, and some new toys."

I was at the sink washing some dishes when peace flooded my soul.  She held it together to explain one of life's biggest moments for her family, even though she herself was dealing with the same silent question, just like we all do.  She was brave when she needed to be and that kind of brave could only come from what she knew and believed about the love of God over the soot that was currently covering their lives at the moment.

When life covers everything you know familiar, comfortable, and gives you a little sooty squeeze, or strips you of precious, know that bravery awaits you too.  It's one more opportunity where God proves His love for you by showing you where you put your big child-of-God bravery, gulping hard, and leaning on what you know about God versus what life circumstance is suffocating you right now.
God makes us brave.  Need a little extra bravery today?  Watch this.

From the broken comes anew

Beauty is birthed from broken seeds.

Imagine a seed declaring its value based on its perfection. How flawless its edges. How unbreakable its exterior.

How it must look lifeless to some but to the planter the dormant life lies just on the inside.    

The real value of the seed lies on what’s hidden. When the most important process it has to go through is it's burial in the dirt, the drench of water, and the crushing weight of the dirt just to be broken open.

Then there is the real process is germinating, growing, bursting forth with courage to begin something new.

We are walking seeds. Afraid of brokenness. Afraid of mess. When, in reality, embracing the dirt that covers us is what bursts forth life.  Seeds broken wide open become soft and pliable, moldable, breakable so that new life is revealed.

Perfection is an illusion that locks away the potential within us.  It keeps our fears at bay to make us never even look in the direction of change.  Perfection keeps us from starting, from dreaming.

I want to be planted. I want to dive deep into the dirt. I want to let the rains wash over me. Knowing that it is in this place of vulnerability is when transformation happens, and that changes everything.

For when I break, I open up. The raw within is now visible. And it turns out to be more tender and lovely than the shell I was trying to perfect and make shiny.

New life rises up from the dirt. Different. More whole. Reaching for the light of the sun.

Imagine if you would let God get a hold of your hard coated heart and breath a little Holy breath of fire into it.  What would happen if the Holy Spirit breathed some new life into your cold places?

There are dark places in all of our hearts that we hide from the Planter, and don't to give into the Light. 

I don't know why.....he wants to make all things new.  In you.

Once you do...there is such freedom, with a newness to life and such an alive feeling, like something wild just invaded and touches our soul's core nerve...and it breaks open, bursts.

Such...transformation happens.

The old has gone and the new is here...grows with God's goodness.  For at the proper time it will grow, strong and wispy, then bloom, full blossoms, bearing fruit.

Let God's wholeness touch your deep places, your old past wounds, your messy life, your dirt that you won't let go of.  Let the Healer in.  Let Him plant truth deep into those lifeless seeds.

You have to let the Planter put His holy hands on the lifeless parts, crack open some shells, a breakthrough to your dormant soul.

The Perfector wants to perfect your faith.  In the process...guess what...He will bring life, blooms and fruit as you let His love germinate.  

Beauty is birthed in so many broken open places...

Getting Ahead of God

There are some really entertaining aspects about traveling internationally.  I like to watch people.    The whole driving with the wheel on the left side is odd enough, not to mention driving on the opposite side of the road.  For a non-local driver it can be confusing at best.  

While in India I observed some interesting interactions and reactions of the traffic there.  The white lines are mere hints of staying in a lane of traffic and the drivers sounds their horns when whizzing past another vehicle.  The sounder gives a heads up that you are passing or in their way.  It's intended as a courtesy.  Maybe.

People were always going somewhere at all hours of the night and day and honking the whole way there and back.  It was a little scary from the back seat view too.  There were many drivers that were impatient with the flow and just wanted to get ahead of the next driver.  They don't stop for pedestrian crossings, so it's risky to attempt it, unless you are feeling really brave.

Just the sheer amount of people on the road at any given time of the day or night offers noise, havoc, chaos.  Extremes.

The scene has been replaying in my mind since I got back home.  An endless circle of roundabouts in my brain.  God put the brakes on this thinking and brought it to a complete stop this morning.

God reminded me that I am little like those crazy drivers who honk and tend to stray from the straight lanes of godliness.  I sometimes wish I could give God an extra nudge when it comes to making His plans unfold.  I tend to honk by in prayer thinking I have really left it there at His feet, but then just pick it back up again and try to hurry God along just a little.

Just a nudge....God.    

"Are you sure you can't move this perfect plan of yours along just a little faster?  

"Don't you hear me honking God?"

Am I the only one who wants to get the jump start on God's plan...like right now?  I'll admit I get a little impatient sometimes, tending to stray out of the perfect lanes that God has designed and built for me.  I know...I wish I was writing about you instead of me.

God is working in this open highway of His grace.  The traffic in India was a visual assault on my heart as I realized what I have been giving back to God.  What I am praying for is worth the wait.  It's worth the perfect wait.  It's worth waiting on God to work His perfect plan.  It's worth waiting for His perfect plan to unfold.

It's worth waiting on God.  God's plan are worth it.

There are reasons that only He knows and those are worth waiting for.  As His plan unfolds he leads and guides me in the straight paths as long as I acknowledge Him and submit to His Lordship.  So my driving skills are NOT needed here.  I just need to be still, wait and stop honking when I am tempted to get ahead of God.

I must rest and yield to His design.  I must coast in His silences.  I must trust on His trusty shoulders of grace that have His movements perfectly timed and well designed.  

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,' declares the Lord."   Isaiah 55:8

God can't be hurried, nor do I need to get ahead of Him.
He knows, above all, what He is doing.
He wrote Google maps, He has carefully planned my road trip.

Sunday Scripture [John 15:5]

Remaining

In the spring, vines often produce flowers.  Some vines produce fruit or vegetables.  If you look at the same vines in the winter season, however, it often looks like there is no growth.  It's essential for the vine to stay connected in the the down times of growth to maintain a constant source of nurtrition for the spring. Once cut, the vines will not flourish.  The joint must not be broken.  

With Jesus' words recorded in John, He was giving the disciples a word picture about spiritual growth.  Jesus is the Vine, our Life source.  Our Only Source.  We, as believers, are the branches.  It is essential to stay connected to our only source of Life.  If we remove ourselves, we will not bear fruit, we will not grow, we will shrivel.  Jesus gives life, maintains growth and bears fruit in us IF we remain connected to Him.  We must stay grafted to Jesus.  Jesus must remain our source of life.  Without him we will shrivel, dry up and be unproductive.

We are not designed to do this life alone.  You have heard of the saying "a God-sized hole" in your heart, I believe that to be true.  Part of God's intimate design for each of us is a need that can only be filled by him.  So when we try to fill our lives with everything but God, we will get a false sense of security and satisfaction.  No one wants that!

Remain.Connect.Stay.Grow