Saturday, April 21, 2012

Beauty, sorrow, hope and strawberries

This week has been beauty and sorrow wound tightly together. I do not believe, nor have experienced, the depth of one without the depth of another. The ground this week has been sacred and holy, places destroyed being slowly rebuilt, "the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your days of sorrow will end"....yes and amen. Not to sound charismatic, but people's lives are changing. Someone who is near and dear to me is changing and it is beautiful and amazing. Again, it confirms that we have a God much bigger than we are who maps our lives out from beginning to end. We can stop trying to figure it out, we can stop trying to control and manipulate others, we can change ourselves and put our hope in the character of God not in another person. God uses the things of this world to shame the wise, and let me just tell you how true that is. He alone changes the heart, all we have to do is walk into action, an act of worship and a weary surrender and acknowledgement of life as it is is not working, believer or not. It can look holy and biblical and even sound that way, but a true surrender is more than a Sunday school class with a nicely planned out lesson, it is a march straight into a bloody battle and a fight for the soul.

Our 2nd meeting of our marriage group meets tomorrow and this is our season to give back. To share one another burden's, to encourage, to pray, to worship with, mentor too and open our doors and hearts to those who need hope. God clearly gave me Isaiah 61 last month and I wrote it down and underlined the whole thing, " The year of the Lord's favor" and oh my has it manifested itself in ways least expected. The devastation of my own journey, then the rebuilding and the mourning turned into dancing has now come to fruition far beyond my wildest dreams. Living the life of freedom and sharing that journey and the way the Holy Spirit moved, worked, convicted and changed us allows us to speak hope to those who have none. By the world standard's we should have had none, zilch, zero...but through God and by God we did and even though it was tiny, tiny, it was enough to get us to move forward, to just keep walking in the dark and as we walked it became brighter and brighter. Hope, a small but powerful word. I hope if you read this and have none, you can be encouraged. God does miracles. He breaks bondage. He loves His people. Believe Him. Immerse yourself in Him. On your knee's. On your face. Confess your unbelief...and pray for an ounce of hope.

This week has made me weary yet filled me up!

On the lighter side, we went and picked strawberries, which was fun and I didn't expect for them to be a delicious as they are! The kids had a ball and Summer seems to be whispering 'I am almost here' as Tinks cottage is brimming over with children, night and day. I am embracing this is the new normal and getting more courageous with sharing our story with those I am in community with for no other reason alone, but to display His power and glory!
Now go find a strawberry farm near you, get outside and pick some yummy strawberries!

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