God is in the mess...

"Trust is like a staff you can lean on as you journey uphill with Me...the staff will bear as much of your weight as needed."

Sarah Young, "Jesus Calling"

As I drifted off to sleep the other night, after the discovery of the flood (small "f" flood--not quite as bad as Noah's capital "F" Flood), I prayed to see God in the events of the day.  The more I looked,  the more evident was God's presence.  Sometimes we don't immediately go to looking for God in difficulties, though. We may be tempted to scold God for not showing up in time to prevent the difficulties in the first place.  After all, wouldn't that be easier than having to clean up the bigger mess? But, I'm finding that God is there, in the mess--in the individual heartbeats of each person involved. The words and actions of comfort and care may come from the lips of people on the scene, but the grace behind them is from God.  God is quite easy to find if we are looking.  So, as we lean on trust in Jesus like a staff (I love that!), let's keep our eyes open to find God in the mess of the situation.  God is right there.  Love, heidi

Kindness

"In the end only kindness matters..."

"Hands," by Jewel

 

I had one of those days yesterday.  My day was hijacked by a serious flood at my attached-townhouse-neighbor and my place was damaged too.  At the end of the craziness I sat down and thought about what lessons I am invited to learn in all this.  Now, I haven't heard this song for years and years, but the phrase "only kindness matters" kept running through my mind.  I listened to the whole song and it is so beautiful and spiritual (I will put the link below).  Anyway, God is inviting me to put the whole deal in perspective--no one was injured! Also, God is asking me to be as kind as possible to everyone. With the grace of God I hope to just be the "nice lady next door" through the next several weeks of dealing with it all.  As we pray with the beautiful words to this song, let's all remember the words, "only kindness matters..." and let's live that way.  Love, heidi

 

Jewel - Hands (Official Video)

				Jewel - Hands (Official Video)
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Soften my heart!

  "Looking around at them with anger and grieved at their hardness of heart, Jesus said to the man..."

Mark 3:5

"Hardness of heart," hummm.. What is that exactly?  Yesterday, I had a long bus ride home from visiting my daughters over the weekend.  The weekend was amazing...God-tracks all over the place.  It's so much easier to see God in a lively celebration than it is in a long, mundane bus ride.  It's so easy to get frustrated with our fellow human beings when they have the theme song from the Smurfs as a very loud ringtone.  It's so easy to be crabby when waiting for the bus connection takes longer than the trip itself.  But what better time to work on softening our hearts? We had a mission speaker last year who made it a point to travel by bus everywhere she went! There are lessons to be learned--patience and humility for two, while squeezing in with our fellow travelers on the metaphorical journey.  Sad to say, I wasn't open to learning them yesterday.  My heart was too hardened, I guess. Thankfully, today is a new day, full of new lessons to learn.  Lord, please soften my heart today! Love, heidi