one thought
We were made in God’s image.
Why do we live as though He is made in ours?
Is it just me,
or are you guilty of doing this too?
missions is God’s heartbeat
I’ve heard people talk about the Biblical basis of missions. But I think it’s more accurately stated as the missional basis of the Bible.
It’s so easy to assume that missions is a New Testament idea. But it’s not. It’s been God’s heart since the very beginning. His passion for the nations is evident throughout the entirety of the Bible.
I know many often struggle to reconcile the God of judgment and wrath in the Old Testament with the one of mercy and grace in the New. But if we look closely enough, we can see His heartbeat as a thread all throughout.
It’s so evident in the Bible stories we learned in Sunday School, but amid the flannelgraphs and illustrated kids’ Bibles, we may have missed it.
Way back in Genesis, God promised Abraham overwhelming blessings. Not so Abraham could live an abundant, selfish life. But so that “all people on earth will be blessed” through him. All people.
The story of Noah and the ark shows us more than God’s wrath on the sinful world and the rescue of every kind of animal. It reveals God’s mercy, compassion, and love for the nations of the earth. The promise set forth in the rainbow was God’s covenant with all of mankind—not just Noah’s family. Not just the people of Israel. Not just the Body of Christ. God’s covenant of grace was “a covenant for all generations to come.” All generations.
What was the whole point of David and Goliath? Little beats big? God on your side is the majority? We can do all things through God’s strength? All of those things and more. Ultimately, it reveals God’s heart. David conquered Goliath so “the whole world will know that there is a God.” The whole world.
Then there was Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, the three young Israelites in the fiery furnace. In the end, King Nebuchadnezzar decreed that the people of “every nation” will know that “no other god can save.” Every nation.
Not only did the Lord spare Daniel’s life in the lion’s den, but “all the peoples, nations, and men of every language” heard about it. The king issued a decree that basically said, “There is no God like Daniel’s!” Every language.
Even in the Psalms we can read of God’s heart for the lost. “May God be gracious to us and bless us and make His face shine upon us that Your ways may be known on earth, Your salvation among all nations.” David’s prayer was “Bless us, Lord, so that all nations may come to know You!” There are so many other passages like that strewn throughout the Psalms. All nations.
As you read the Bible this week, look at everything through the missions lens. You’ll see things you never noticed before. And you’ll discover the heart of God in a whole new way.
God’s ultimate plan is for all nations to know Him. As Christians, as God-followers, we are called to be a part of His plan.
All of us.
Originally a guest post at my friend Becky’s
a little somethin’ for the guys
I don’t know that I’m the greatest candidate for a marriage series. I mean… I’m going through a divorce…
Sigh…
So I’m gonna keep this short.
But I wanna talk to the men for a minute. Just for a minute, I promise. I’ll get right to the point…
: : :
So guys… Come finish reading on Fireflies & Hummingbirds >
(It really is short…)
iSpy
Gonna get a little creative for some weekend fun at The Grit. (Shocker, I know…)
Let’s pretend for a moment that the commenter immediately before you has the magical ability to look through your computer screen. They can see you and your surroundings. (Don’t be scared. It’s only make-believe…) And you can look through the screen of whoever stumbles along next.
We’re all gonna play the I Spy Game together. Yep, you know the one I mean. The one that’s usually reserved for boring road trips…
Respond to the last comment and tell us what your through-the-computer visitor might have spied based on their clue. Then leave a clue for the next person, telling them what you spy through their screen.
Make sense?
I’mma start us off. I’m looking through the computer monitor of the first person, and…
I spy with my little eye something that is fuzzy.
pondering
“Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.”
I do the same.
With both my greatest joys and my deepest heartaches. “All these things…”
Some feelings and experiences are simply far too wonderful, much too precious, for me to even begin trying to explain them to others. And so… I ponder them in my heart.
Some situations and raw emotions are too big, too extreme, too altogether horrible, to ever try to put words on them. And so… I ponder them in my heart.
Some moments, both magnificent and wretched, simply won’t fit inside the alphabet. They can’t squeeze into words. They can’t be packaged and given to others. They are only to be experienced. And felt. And pondered.
The past few weeks have been filled with some of my most wonderful and most painful moments. I live in the tension of the two extremes that war at each other within that pondering place of my heart.
Cooped up. Fighting for elbow-room. Unable to both fit within the confines of my insides.
And unable to be shouldered by anyone else.
Only me.
I’m not talking about dwelling on things in the worrying sense, although I do plenty of that. But there is a realistic need to just sit in things sometimes. There’s the unavoidable truth of not being able to escape the crap of your own life, no matter where you go or who you’re with.
It is what it is what it is.
And sometimes it’s fighting to get out—to be acknowledged, to be shared—but will never find phrases big enough to offer it a means of escape.
Some things are simply meant to be pondered and held onto.
And my heart feels every ounce of their weight.
maybe even more so
It’s so normal to me that I don’t even really think about it anymore.
Most of my friends are people I met online.
Although I’ve gotta be honest… Using that phrase “met online” bugs me. It seems to diminish or devalue the experience and the friendships because of the negative connotations it holds for so many.
I never make distinctions like “online friends” and “in real life friends”. There is no delineation between them. A friend is a friend, no matter where or how we met.
The friendships I’ve built over the internet are every bit as real, deep, and authentic as any I’ve ever built face-to-face.
Maybe even more so.
Because I articulate myself better in writing, I’m quicker to dive into weighty topics over Twitter, email, and blogging than I probably would in person. Then once that groundwork is laid, it’s a whole lot easier for me to carry on that conversation offline.
Authenticity breeds authenticity. And while there are those who misrepresent themselves online, the majority of people I’ve gotten to know have proven themselves to be genuine.
Being real makes others feel safe to do the same.
And that’s how great friendships get built.
My life is full of them. And I am so incredibly grateful.
I have more friends now than I’ve ever had. I don’t say that to try to sound popular. (Because, trust me, I’m not. At all.) I say it with a shake of my head and disbelief in my voice. I can’t seem to find the right words to convey how astounded and humbled I am by the relationships God has gifted me with.
Because they truly are a gift.
And they have carried me through the most difficult season of my life. Even those people I haven’t had the chance to hug yet.
Honestly, as long as we’re bringing our true selves, it doesn’t matter if we get together in Starbucks or in an email.
Friendships are about connections of the heart.
And hearts hang out in the strangest of places.
Originally a guest post at PrudyChick.com
handle with care
[original picture from here, edited using CameraBag]
dead weight sinks fast
I stare at the blank screen and my heart goes equally blank. Not filled with nothing but filled with so much something—so much everything—that it could just as well be blank.
My words,and along with them, all cohesive thought, just seem to scatter like frightened children.
Yet still I feel this pressing need to document my days. To capture the steps in my journey. Even when it feels like I’m not taking any.
And I’m not really sure why.
I’ve never been a good journaler. I’ve never chronicled my thoughts faithfully or consistently. But I kind of wish I could right now, as though some day I may want to read back on what I was thinking and feeling today.
I can’t help but shake my head at that thought. Because I don’t even want to face what I’m thinking and feeling today today, so why on earth would I want to down the road? Yet all that head-shaking doesn’t dislodge the thought that I will someday wish had written more…
If only I could find my heart, maybe I could pin her down on paper.
But she is being help captive—without ransom or reward—by a depression and grief that is stronger than I’ve ever known. She is tied up. Chained. Sinking fast in a stormy ocean.
And she’s given up.
She’s stopped fighting. No more struggling. No more trying to tread water.
So yeah… I can’t imagine ever wanting to look back on days like today. I don’t want to look at them in the moments I’m actually living them.
I just want to understand. And yet… I know I never will. I know I’m supposed to simply hold His hand in faith, without the answers.
My hand is just weary from death-gripping. My heart is just weary from death-gripping.
Maybe the letting go… the giving up… the sinking… Maybe that’s okay. Maybe somehow that’s actually the point.
I guess I’ll find out…
Dead weight sinks fast.
even me
I knew the entire 18 months that my husband was having an affair.
At first it was just a suspicion; by the end, we were fighting every single day about her. He kept denying it. And insisting that the real issue was me. How dare I accuse him of something like this?!
Until I confronted him with undeniable proof.
I don’t know what I thought would happen after that. I don’t know that I was thinking at all. But I certainly didn’t imagine everything that’s transpired in the year-and-a-half since then.
I never anticipated the bottom completely falling out of my world, making every single thing in my life uncertain and unsure. I never expected him to leave me for her. I couldn’t imagine that things would get far worse long before they’d ever start getting better.
I wonder if I’d have gone through with it if I had known what would happen.
I was so crushed, depressed, and broken, that I’m not sure I would have. And that breaks my heart.
It also makes me realize that—and I’m almost afraid to say this out loud—I’m grateful. With tears streaming down my face, I’m thankful that my life shattered to pieces… because I am already more whole than I was before all this happened.
Don’t get me wrong. The past few years have been hell. They’ve been harder than I ever imagined I could survive, and I wouldn’t wish that kind of pain on anyone. Even her.
But sitting here today, I have a clearer picture of my value and worth than I ever did in my marriage.
I still have a long road ahead of me. I will live with the pain of this heartache for a long time. But today… Today I feel hopeful that God is redeeming this.
He doesn’t waste a thing.
Everything can be made new. Everything can be redeemed. Everything can be made whole.
Even this.
Even me.
[Originally a guest post at Pearl Girls...]
ten years in ten days
My 10th anniversary is stalking me.
Ten years. In ten days.
My welly eyes spill over just thinking about it. This will be the second anniversary since he filed for divorce. The second one that feels like it’s been stolen from me. Ripped right out from underneath me.
And then it lingers close, haunting me. Taunting me. I can’t escape it. Still legally married, but no longer celebrating our marriage.
So days like anniversaries aren’t really even scars yet, healing as time goes by. They are still raw wounds, ripped open again by unavoidable calendar pages.
I close my eyes for a moment… and I wish.
I wish for that day to come and go with fewer tears than I have tonight. I wish for anything but alone. I wish for good music, food, and company. I wish it could somehow be a day of creating new, unexpected memories with someone I love. Who loves me.
I wish for happy in my anniversary.
Even though…
Even though.
