courage, love, commitment

God is teaching me so much lately...past few days...past few decades. (just a few, ha!) and He is teaching me through others' obedience to the Spirit. and that is so very encouraging to me. and I want to encourage our friends afar specifically to not give up sharing and encouraging other new faces in the midst of discomforts and discouragements and family stresses.

I've been learning how to share my story, honestly and at appointed times. and how through sharing comes healing, and how those wounds are grace...isn't that something? how our past experiences/sins/struggles are yes, to point us to Jesus. but It doesn't end there. those past hurts become tools to pave the way for others' understanding, comfort, and encouragement. . and grasping takes courage, it takes blind love, it takes commitment.

courage, blind love, commitment. ugh. so much effort in those words.

courage means you might get hurt, you may not be received, they may not understand. is it worth sharing? yes. it is when Christ has redeemed you, and we are charged with this Hope.

blind love. I had a mentor in college, and in a letter I wrote to her once I said 'people are morons.' (yall who know me are laughing). her response was 'see people as Jesus sees them.' I will never forget that. do I act on that every day? absolutely not. that woman there who is not my favorite and whose kids wreck my house just might not make it if I don't whisper hope to her. do it.

commitment. the sticking point. go back to their house. invite them again. show up every time. follow through.

be encouraged, sisters. the days are hot and long, and so are our duties and lists. oh to be like Christ, wandering those dusty streets with one thing on His mind: sharing and teaching His Fathers love.

'every time you meet another human being you have the opportunity. it's a chance at holiness. for you will do one of two things, then. either you will build him up or tear him down...you will create or you will destroy....there are no useless minor meetings. there are no dead-end jobs. there are no pointless lives. swallow your sorrows, forget your grievances and all the hurt your poor life has sustained. turn your face to the human before you and let her, for one pure moment, shine. think her important, and then she will suspect that she is fashioned of God.'

I have no idea where this came from, but I love it.

Poems as Instruments of Adoration

I did not love poems until I started memorizing them with my children. We especially like really long poems that tell a story and poems about nature. Now those children's poems help me express my unpoetic self when I behold God's glory in creation: when I see a majestic tree, when it rains, when it is cold outside....Poets have that gift to be moved and find words to help others to be moved.
Here are some of my favorites:

Trees By Joyce Kilmer

I THINK that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the sweet earth's flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.

I SAW GOD WASH THE WORLD

By William Stidger

I saw God wash the world last night
With His sweet showers on high;
And then when morning came
I saw him hang it out to dry.

He washed each slender blade of grass
And every trembling tree;
He flung his showers against the hills
And swept the rolling sea.

The white rose is a deeper white;
The red, a richer red
Since Gold washed every fragrant face
And put them all to bed.

There's not a bird, there's not a bee
That wings along the way,
But is a cleaner bird and bee
Than it was yesterday. 

I saw God wash the world last night;
Ah, would He had washed me
As clean of all my dust and dirt
As that old white birch tree!

Who Loves The Rain 

By Frances Shaw     

WHO loves the rain   And loves his home, And looks on life with quiet eyes,   Him will I follow through the storm;   And at his hearth-fire keep me warm;          Nor hell nor heaven shall that soul surprise,   Who loves the rain,   And loves his home, And looks on life with quiet eyes. The Mist and All by Dixie Wilson I like the fall The mist and all I like the night owl’s lonely call And wailing sound Of wind around I like the gray November day And dead, bare boughs that coldly sway Against my pane I like the rain I like to sit And laugh at it And tend my cozy fire a bit I like the fall The mist and all

Ministering loooonnnnng term

emmett and I listened to a Piper podcast the other night. don't be fooled, we don't sit around and listen to Piper podcasts every night. but, this was a good one. if you want to google it, it's 'the Key to Ministry Longevity.' (which, this makes me laugh..I recently met up with my mentor through college. I hadn't actually seen her since my wedding day. so, it had been 11 years. she could not believe emmett and I were still church planting. she said she'd never known anyone to be ministering in a church that long and she was a missionary in South Africa...makes me feel relieved, actually! And kind of sad) anyways, Piper spoke on John Newton's biography and it centered around one line from maybe a memoir or something...I can't remember. Newton said he endeavors to walk through the world as ministering to the sick in hospitals, and he does the best he can and gets through.

John Newton said he just gets through?? i love it. I feel that deeply, and it doesn't need much explanation. but as you ladies are doing the hard things, day in and day out...it's okay that it is ALL hard. it's okay if you barely make spaghetti...again. it's okay if you cringe just thinking about counseling or praying with a particular person that's been on your mind. Its okay if you receive criticism for doing one thing but not the other. it's okay if your kids are driving you bananas and you just don't know what to do with them.  

I'm there on all of those, and I'm just getting through.

but you are doing the right things. You are clinging to the hope that you have been given, and by His grace, you will indeed get through. it's true.

Jenny

Puritan Prayer

I read a beautiful prayer from the book "Valley of Visions: Puritan Prayers" the other day and wanted to pass it along...

Lord, high and holy, meek and lowly, Thou hast brought me to the valley of vision,

where I live in the depths but see thee in the heights; hemmed in by mountains of sin I behold thy glory.

Let me learn by paradox
that the way down is the way up,
that to be low is to be high,
that the broken heart is the healed heart, that the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit, that the repenting soul is the victorious soul, that to have nothing is to possess all,
that to bear the cross is to wear the crown, that to give is to receive,
that the valley is the place of vision.

Lord, in the daytime stars can be seen from deepest wells, and the deeper the wells the brighter thy stars shine;

Let me find thy light in my darkness, thy life in my death,

thy joy in my sorrow, thy grace in my sin,
thy riches in my poverty thy glory in my valley. 

I love this!!! I hope you do too!

Monday encouragement.....

Let us not look at the things around us, but let us look to the One that made these things. Our hope is in Him. 

Today, let us all (including myself) look to Him and keep our focus where it should be!

With love, 

Lynne

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