ENCOURAGE - EQUIP - EMPOWER
IT STARTS HERE.
How do you respond in a crisis? I have always been one of those people who just puts her head down and does what needs to be done. I push through the difficulties, often not stopping to check what I am thinking and feeling. I just do the next thing until the crisis is over! Then when I come out on the other side, I look back and see how God worked in the situation. This tactic is not working too well right now because the length of the “crisis” is so long. It’s been six months of unprecedented craziness. That’s a long time to keep your head down!
Growing up in a Puerto Rican household I could count on several things to happen when family came to visit. There would be a lot of food, it would be loud, and the women would inevitably end up gathered together, aware of, and in tuned to, only each other. I found my mom and aunts fascinating. Their conversations would flow from English to Spanish back to English effortlessly, sometimes comprised of laughter, sometimes tears, sometimes looks I knew not to interrupt. Often all of the above.
Of all the things God is none of it matters as much to me as His faithfulness. If He is love, but not consistently love, He is less than perfect. If He is just but not always just, that is terrifying. If He gives grace but is not forever gracious, my relationship with Him will be based on fear and self-righteousness. In all these things, His faithfulness is the thread that binds them all together for His glory and our good.
When I first saw that the Fruit of the Spirit I was to write about was ‘kindness,’ I inwardly groaned. Kindness is such a generic word, like ‘nice.’ It gets used all the time, but it’s not specific. On the other hand, if it’s listed in the Fruit of the Spirit, it must be important. So over the last few weeks as I’ve pondered what to write about, I was reminded of the many times I have been the recipient of kindness and how it made all the difference in the world.
Love is one of those polarizing words. It can seem simple or complex. It can be obvious or evasive. It conjures up feelings of hurt or feelings of healing. It can be easily said or awkwardly unsaid. So how can a simple blog post attempt to grasp “love?” Well, it can’t, and I can’t. So I’ll just speak about what God says about love.
This past Memorial Day weekend marked 16 years since “the accident.” A horrific car accident that would change the trajectory of my life in a myriad of ways. Physically, spiritually, mentally, and relationally. Recovering in the hospital, the only change my mind could focus on centered on the changes to my body. Severe injuries sustained by my right leg led to the need for an above the knee amputation, and a few months down the line the addition of a prosthetic leg.
