ENCOURAGE - EQUIP - EMPOWER
IT STARTS HERE.
I recently came across research from Dr. George Barna of The Barna Group that shows “only 6% of all U.S. adults have a biblical worldview. It is barely better among the self-identified Christian population (9%).”
Shocking? Well, consider conversations you have with those in your daily life.
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If there’s one thing that will consistently prick my anxiety, get my nerves going and make me start to sweat, it’s the thought of having to share my faith with someone. What if I say the wrong thing? What if it’s not perfect? What if I miss something? It’s intimidating and scary and most of the time I try to avoid it. But the thing is, when we look at the example of Jesus in the Bible, when He shares the Gospel, it’s not intimidating and scary. It’s intimate and simple.
To borrow from the greeting of a recovery meeting: “Hi, my name is Bonnie and I am the granddaughter of two alcoholics (both sides of the family tree), daughter of an alcoholic, sister of an alcoholic, and aunt of an alcoholic.” Alcoholism runs strong and deep in my family tree. As the old proverb says, “There, but for the grace of God, go I.” I mean that literally! Had I not found Jesus at 13 years old, I believe that I too would have been in that number.
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A message I’ve repeatedly heard on social media, in written commentary pieces, and even in talks from Christian leaders is that “you are enough”, while some even take it further to say “you are good enough.”
When taken with a grain of salt, I understand the message that we don’t have to perform up to someone else’s standard to be worthy of love – we are “enough” just as we are. But, even as I type that it still doesn’t sit right with me, because I see the sin in my heart, thoughts, and actions and I don’t see them as a qualifier or disqualifier for me to be loved.
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Heavenly Father,
You know my heart, so you know I am struggling to find joy in this current season of life. I feel stuck, crawling through this wilderness with no end in sight. I look desperately for meaning and purpose in days that feel long and mundane. I have dreams for my life that seem bigger than the place where I wake up. I wrestle with the disappointment of both what is and what has not yet come.
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Having lived through the trauma of a verbally and emotionally abusive marriage and the ensuing chaos that extricating myself created, I’ve tended to avoid similar situations in other’s lives at all costs. Just the recovery from that time in my life was one of the more difficult things I’ve had to do. But I vowed to the Lord that I would obey Him in His promise to turn the broken and dirty ashes of my life into something beautiful that honors Him.
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The woman is not named, but her beautiful story is recorded in Matthew, Mark and Luke. It has connected with me like few others. She is known as the woman with a bleeding issue. This is not a pretty topic. It also might be hard to discuss candidly in a sermon. But we as women can certainly relate…and her story is worth a closer look.
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Easter isn’t all sunshine, dresses, jellybeans and Peeps candies. While there is great cause for celebration, true Easter rejoicing can only come by appreciating the death that preceded it. To gloss over it with pretty spring flowers and overflowing Easter baskets isn’t giving our Lord His due…
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My focus during Lent this year has been to seek more of Jesus in my daily life. In my moving around the house, driving in my car, in my conversations, as I discipline my children, as I listen to my friends. I felt a need not to give something up but to make more room for why we even recognize this time of year.
I’m in a season of waiting. I’ve been here for a while. And I’m getting impatient.
Actually, I think I’ve passed impatience. Impatience was a spreadsheet with over one hundred job applications. Impatience was attending my twenty-third wedding without a plus one. Impatience was sobbing to my mom over the phone while sitting in my car in the dark because I was just so tired of the word no.
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Over the past few years I have strived to explore a great majority of the White Clay Creek Preserve. The trails are vast and branch farther than I ever realized. I am thankful for this space that is so close to where we live; not only for the amazing trails, beauty, and peace it provides, but the lessons it has taught me as I have explored the winding water in the creek. It never ceases to amaze me. Each visit there is something different and new. Take for instance a lesson I learned from these pictures.
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I have never considered myself as a person who is prideful. I come from humble beginnings. My parents struggled to keep ahead of the bills. I am grateful for the childhood I had and the training ground it provided. I had to learn a lot of skills in order to make do.
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