Posted on

Belonging & Behavior, Part 2

Last week, I unraveled my thoughts about both OT and NT characters seeing (or missing) their chance to simply belong to God – be chosen, be beloved, be enough in His sight, be His. 

Ezekiel said yes; the masses of Israelites said no.

Mary said yes; most of the Pharisees said no. 

This is how I am challenged right now and here is what I pray becomes crystal clear in the Belonging & Behavior connection training book, which is an adoptive parenting book with a whole other layer of truth built in~

God is inviting people into His family and that belonging piece is not just a step up into a more important level (like how we act). No, belonging is our roots, it’s our trunk, it’s our branches! It’s almost everything. It’s who we are! It’s how we survive in this environment! He knew we would need, more than we realize, to be in the family with Him! And when it really has soaked in that this fellowship is real, that this goodness is true, that we have a Provider, Protector, Father, Counselor, Ever-Present-Help in times of trouble, then…we begin to reflect the good heart with which we have been communing. 

His family has certain ways they act because they have been dwelling with perfect Love. Just like in any family, the members branch out and look different, but in God’s family, all those differences are still going to point to the same beautiful, good, true things about who He is and what He does. Their behavior is the fruit. The bearing of fruit, the harvest, never comes before the planting season! This is where we go wrong when we focus on the rules of what we are doing or not doing, rather than focus on knowing Jesus personally and dwelling with Him in a relationship. 

Sometimes we need to stop and see that our behavior problems are really belonging problems…and oh how the Father would love to help us with that! Soaking in His love, we are changed. 

Like I said last week, it is repeated dozens of times in the OT that God was saying: “I want you to be My people and I want to be Your God.” And God went on multiple times to also say the following, which I think is absolutely worth mentioning…these are Family Basics, per Yahweh. This is how we act when we are His.

We will:

•Be generous to the poor and foreigner, whether that is spiritually, emotionally, or financially poor. They are in our midst for a reason. This shows we know the “Family of God” basics; this shows we know we lack nothing and can give what He gives us away without fear of lack. Giving shows we know our roots, deep in abundance with Father God. 

•Keep the Sabbath, meaning rest and don’t do what you normally do. Don’t catch up or get ahead. Literally, cease! Regroup. Recharge. Give your mouth a break from idle words. Meditate on the beauty of the Lord. Give over to Him all that makes you strive, signifying a release of all our own man-made goodness and accomplishment. This shows we trust our Provider and that we put Him above our abilities, our reputation, and anything we could build for ourselves. Resting shows that who we are comes from the work of Jesus, not us, and that the world will go on without us. It’s more than sacrifice, it is a practice of humility. 

•Know He alone is God. Regardless of past hurts or fears, He is on the throne. He is sovereign. His Word is true. He alone is God, meaning we are not…that takes the load off responsibilities that were never ours in the first place. 

Lord,

We are a tribe that longs to know You and look more like You, our Leader, our Author, our Father. But we are in an atmosphere that makes it feel so complicated as we parent, work long hours, pay for things, and deal with things that don’t seem to matter much in the Kingdom! Show us how to live here, as Yours.

Amen.

Posted on

Saying Hello

It is always hard to say goodbye to an era, to a season you were highly invested in. There’s a loss and it deserves time, and I believe time is healing. But time itself is not enough…

How do we move on, really, in wholeness and peace and new motivation?

For me, the loss is relatively quite small. It’s the end of my homeschooling era. It’s the end of my “family years” with Selah. It’s entering mid-life, leaving behind the skin and body (and sometimes brain) of a younger me.

Others have more grievous losses, like the death of a child, a major job transition, or a health scare or long term disability.

We know in our heightened focus on mental and emotional health that we can’t shove all this down. We can’t just keep busy until we forget. We can’t self-medicate with idols like overeating and numbing out.

We have to make room for it.

Some ideas for that are to write in a lament journal, just taking time to write when the sadness or confusion hits; prayers written to God who does grieve with us. Sometimes we need to take time off to caress our senses with beauty outdoors, friendships, and things we enjoy- as opposed to bingeing Netflix and ice cream. Sometimes we need to talk with someone regularly who will ask questions to make our minds wake up and sweep out the places we don’t want to go inside, finding fears and core beliefs that drive our thoughts, then feelings, then words and actions.

Healing, letting go, and moving on is an actual journey…a process…and like any good journey or process, there is an end. We are created to be resilient and heal! Skin, neural pathways, feelings- they don’t stay the same. When damaged, they can be renewed. Our hearts, our hurts, our disappointments, our memories can also be renewed and restored through the power and healing of Jesus. He can do it anyway He chooses- in an instant, or through a long journey. But just like Joseph, we can know that the timing has purpose. It is making us, molding us, and we can willingly go with that current or never see that God is there driving a current at all.

So the key is surrender. The key is surrender to an awareness of a bigger picture, of a great big God, of others in need, and of the short time we have here to run in the path He has for us. The key is surrendering not only to God’s work in our story, but surrendering to being a part of His story.

When we left Selah at college, knowing I was entrusting her to God like never before, there was this moment in worship where the lyrics were:

“Oh Christ be magnified~on the altar of my life~oh Christ be magnified in me.”

And I realized, my life being laid down—my surrender—day by day as a parent, and in the other ways I try to trust and obey Him, is for no other reason than to be a willing part of His story.

So, now it’s time to say hello not to the next chapter in my life or my family’s life, but to the page of the seemingly unseen story my life is a part of. Do I have choices, do I have feelings? Yes and yes! But I choose to get excited about His story over mine. The memory of Lyndsay Taylor on the earth will at some point be long gone; but what Jesus did through my simple, transparent, messy life surrendered to Him will actually remain!

I’m going to close with this thought. When we pray for God’s will to be done in our lives, what is our motivation? Is it to see a life that at the end we can say we “did right”; are we praying this in hopes of it all going fairly well?

Or do we pray “Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven” to surrender to our smallness, praying that the reality of our lives – whatever He allows – will make a clear way for others to see Him?

God ~ You areJehovah Rapha, Healer ~ You are Jehovah Jireh, Provider ~ please bring joy into our processes and pain, as we surrender them to Your purposes, for Your glory and Kingdom plans in the world!
Amen.

Posted on

In Sorrow

Last night, I was supposed to pick some songs to lead at our Bible study at church. I chose Raise a Hallelujah and Goodness of God because they felt right in light of the chapter we were reading in our book, Rekindled Flame, that week. As our evening of talking and praying went on, someone spoke about the shooting in Nashville, and it led to such a somber time of acknowledging our sorrow, confusion, and even doubts and fears. And that was the exact moment the Bible study leader asked me to go into our worship through singing time…

I was thinking to myself:

Seriously?

How do I do that?

I don’t feel like worshipping right now!

I feel like sitting at His feet, yes. I feel like asking lots of questions in His presence, yes. But worship? Praise? Raise a hallelujah?

So I prayed. I reminded my heart and those in the room of truth. We decided to bring a sacrifice of praise. We decided to focus on His sovereignty, His place on His throne, and ultimately, we decided to have faith…the messy, real faith that acknowledges our feelings but also acknowledges our decision to trust the Lord.

I was rightly convicted when the Bible study leader asked us if we could share a time that we praised God and worshiped Him through thanksgiving in the middle of pain and suffering. I felt like I really didn’t have a time to say, because in the worst of times, I will fall to my knees and pray – I will speak truth, I will trust – and I know this is worship, too – but do I praise Him then and there? No, not really. It feels inauthentic. But I see there is a difference between celebratory praise (which may truly feel inauthentic in grief and I think we need to hold space for that) and worshipful adoration of Him through reading Psalms, praying our thanks, and even singing.

We are in such a sad time of history. But I don’t know that any other era was better. It’s just incredibly hard and sad. So what do we do? There are many ways to express it, but for me, here are 3 things I want to be faithful to do.

I want to run to the Father. I want to take my real thoughts and feelings to Him, rather than turn from Him, letting my mind get stuck on the “whys”. Our hearts are breaking. We either take those broken pieces to Him, or we take them somewhere else. The people who will take their fears, doubts, pain, and anger to Him will find healing, joy, and comfort. We are promised trouble, even though God is good. We are promised suffering, even though God is sovereign. And we are also promised peace, His presence, and that He will make all things work together for good for those that love Him and are called according to His purpose (John 14 & Romans 8).

I want to submit to His sovereignty. Part of the beauty of genuine worship is that in His presence, often with the help of scripture and songs, we are once again reminded of the truth of His wisdom and power. Does it take away the pain and questions? No. It doesn’t always do that. But when I submit to His sovereignty, His authority, His choices, His ways, I am enacting my faith and my identity as a child of God. I am not saying I’m okay. I’m not saying I understand or like what is happening. I’m not saying I’m over it. But in submitting to His sovereignty, I am humbling myself and taking my rightful place, which does change my perspective on the big picture.

I want to activate my spiritual gifts for the good of the Body. We all want to do something in times like these. So, we should. Pray. Ask the Lord how to pray, who to pray for, where to pray. Encourage. Ask the Lord how, who, where, when. Teach. Ask the Lord how, who, where, when. Give. Ask the Lord how, who, where, when. Serve. Prophesy. Show mercy. In my class on Tuesday, which is a Women’s Ministry training time, our leader used her teaching gift to lead us in a precious time of learning and surrender regarding the Nashville shooting. She shared how even in this horrific story, God shows His “metanarrative” of creation, the fall of man, redemption, and restoration. We are easily focused on the “fall of man” part, an easy piece to grab onto with our focus and fears. But we know His heart is for redemption and restoration, too. Maybe it will be redemption on earth – Jesus trading sorrows for joy, Jesus touching people’s lives with the seriousness of life and death and bringing them to salvation. Maybe the restoration will happen in Heaven, or here on earth as He displays His love and might through healing these broken hearts, I don’t know. But I know He will do it. How can you and I be a part of this redemption and restoration?

Lord Jesus, may Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Turn us to You. Mend our hearts. Send us out. Amen.

Posted on

I Get to Serve the Lord!

I am so thankful! I am so thankful that God hears our prayers and wants to walk this life with us. I’m so thankful His Word is true and His heart is love.

Last Thursday, I finished my courses in order to be a Certified Mental Health Coach with the American Association of Christian Counseling. It was a wonderful program and I am continuing, working to add on a specialization in Biblical Counseling now. So far, every hour has been incredible, both for my growth and edification and for being equipped to help others.

Later that day, my daughter and I were scheduled to visit Asbury University, so we went and ended up spending a lot of time in worship and prayer as REVIVAL had broken out on campus! While there, I was wrestling with the Lord about several things regarding this “new calling” of counseling ministry. Here are some of the particular wrestles:

-I am just a coach, not a licensed professional counselor. Will anyone take me seriously? Is this just embarrassing? Is this humbling on purpose? (If so, I’m glad!)

-When I pass around a business card or meet with someone for coaching and prayer, am I trying to make myself sound “all that”? Am I prideful? Or am I actually just being obedient and faithful?

-Is it wrong for me to be SO EXCITED about using my gifts in this way? Is that annoying? Is that going to feed any part of me that is self-centered?

-What will this look like? I know the Lord told me to prepare new wineskins for Him to fill and I feel like He is telling me what those are, but how much time and availability do I actually really have? I don’t want to sign up for more than I can do while remained super-centered in abiding in Christ, my own health, and my home/family.

I could go on, but you get the gist of the anxiety.

As I wrestled with God and all my questions, the speaker at the front of the room said if you would like prayer for being salt and light in the ministry God has set before you back home (as many of us had traveled to be there), come up. So I did.

All my circular, messy thinking converged in that moment of just walking up for simple prayer.

It was a simple prayer. But I agreed and believed along with every word, and sometime in that day or the next, a joy bubbled up inside of me that said: “You get to serve the LORD!!!!”

I felt the Spirit saying: Stop apologizing. Stop talking about it. Stop making less of it or light of it. Stop making more of it, too. Every believer is called and commissioned to do this! Millions of us are to be filled with the Word, the Spirit, His body and blood, and with our spiritual gifts, edify the body and bless the world!

No, it isn’t about us. But knowing our gifts, knowing ourselves, knowing our God, knowing where and to whom He is sending us, is not self-centered or bragging. “It is not by might not power, but by My Spirit”, says the Lord. This has been covered. This is old ground.

Here are the precursors to serving. Do this and then GO in Jesus’ Name!

-Abide in Christ and His Word.

-Trust in the Holy Spirit and lean not on your own understanding, reputation, or self-image.

-Be still and know that He is God.

Posted on

He Loves Us.

Something I have noticed about myself is I have a hard time with natural ebb and flow — ups and downs — motivation coming and going. Maybe it’s the motivation to stay on some kind of healthy routine or maybe it is my Bible study or intercessory prayer time. Maybe it’s the balance I keep seeking between time alone, family time, and reaching out to others who may be lonely.

These inconsistencies, these ups and downs–

I feel them and see them, and I judge them. I see the waves as a personal character flaw.

I didn’t know that I did, but I do.

The important part is though, the ebbs and flows are really not the problem…

my shame or judgment of them is.

When we determine to believe God is a God of grace, when we ponder that Jesus is a friend to sinners, when we recognize He made us human and not divine – with limited bodies and genuine needs and that a lot of our rules are just that: “ours” – some of us think, “Thank You, thank You, thank You…” And relief and humility and praise erupt!

But some of us think, “Yeah, to a certain extent.” Yeah, to a certain extent He has grace in our weakness. Yeah, to a certain extent He isn’t utterly exhausted of us. Yeah, to a certain extent we are allowed to be imperfect…And the condemnation and self-judgment continues to eat us alive, because our theology is flat out wrong. We are thinking the wrong things about God.

We are more focused on ourselves than on who HE REALLY IS.

To the one rotting in prison, guilty as hell — to the one pulling herself up out of bed every morning to quote her mantra, have her coffee, and slay the day – we are all the same.

We are all trying to do this – be strong, do it right, be enough, don’t waste your one life, be valuable – on our own.

And we can’t.

And I’m so glad. What a shallow life I signed up for in the beginning, when earning and merit and grades was all I knew. Now I know how to accept that I didn’t hit the mark and I never will, and those who are forgiven much LOVE MUCH and therefore I love much every single day.

I was telling my daughter this morning, that as far as I know (I’m no scholar) that Christianity is the only religion where our personal merit has absolutely no part in the equation.

Our personal merit has no part in the equation.

This makes me a radical Jesus-lover, because it’s too good to be true YET IT IS TRUE.

And it’s true for you, too.

I don’t know what you know about the Bible. I don’t know what words or sentences in Scripture have made you question the whole Book. I don’t know how people have hurt or misused or misled you or your family. But I am here to tell you today that God’s love for you is a shout He wants you to hear above every other voice- every memory, every question, every fear, every doubt, every person, every reason you have to not come to Him.

May this seed be planted anew in our hearts today, because I don’t know about you, but I need to KNOW that He Loves Us, with no buts, no howevers. His love will cover and cleanse and help and heal, and the miracle won’t somehow magically change hands and become your responsibility at some point. No. His love will do it all. No matter how messy our lives get, He loves us. He loves us. He loves us.

Oh, how He loves us.

Posted on

Welcome to 2023

It seems like people are saying that New Year’s Resolutions and finding “a word for the year” are OUT.

But y’all! New Year’s is my favorite holiday for this very reason! (And that it’s my anniversary – love you, honey!)

I LOVE getting re-focused and defining my hopes and plans for the year. Am I going to do all the things I plan on every single day? Nope! Am I going to mess up along the way? Yes! But as I look forward to 2023, I know in my heart that God wants my face resolutely pointed in a certain direction. Ultimately, that direction is towards Him!

My resolutions this year are almost entirely about this one particular feature of mine that gets me in a lot of trouble…maybe you can relate:

My mouth.

Ugh.

So, number one-

By God’s grace, I will try to be mindful in my words and responses, especially in the area of not complaining or arguing. I’m going to apologize if I realize I was arguing or complaining. I want to really think before I respond, correct, or say anything at all. This is mostly in regard to my husband and kids, but also in regard to my not-thinking-through-my-quick-yeses-on-text. I will grow with the Holy Spirit’s help to be quicker to listen, slower to speak, and slower to anger.

Number two-

You guessed it. Again, by God’s grace, I want to eat in a way that is grateful, peaceful, and glorifying to God. I want to keep food in its rightful place, and enjoy it but steward my body well. In particular, I want to change my habits regarding sweets. I’m starting out the year with a sugar fast in preparation (physically and spiritually) for my trip to Ethiopia, and after that, I will likely have a moderate amount on the weekends unless I can just continue on with the fast (which would be ideal). When I say by God’s grace, I mean it. Sweets are the comfort of choice for me, and I know I take it too far sometimes.

So, since nothing changes unless you make a change, what do you resolve to focus a little more on this year?

Are you at a crossroads? I honestly think we all are. There are decisions to make: To either sense God is having you stay put and stay on task with joy, or to sense that He is refining you by some new means! Both require His power, His guidance, His presence, and OUR listening, obedient hearts.

What do you most need? What is your greatest frustration?

These things can change or at least your part in them, or your perspective of them, can.

Lord,

We end the holiday season today and we’ve been reminded that Your light has come, but we still live in this dark world with lots of worries and even our homes, bodies, minds, and churches don’t always feel like safe places. Jesus, abide with us! Draw us and our loved ones so near to You, like never before, because if You do not draw us, we will not come. All of our hope is in You and Your strong love that chases us all the days of our lives. Help us to seek You and TRUST Your Word, Your actions, Your plan.

Amen.

Posted on

Happy New Year!

“A man can plan his steps

but the Lord will lead him right or left

Sometimes it seems so clear

but sometimes it seems like years since we heard Him speak

and that’s when faith runs deep.”

I wish you a wonderful new year, dear readers.

I wish you time in God’s Word, precious moments of worship and prayer, and a daily filling of His presence and peace.

I wish you priorities, vision, and strength that will bless and enrich your life like never before.

I wish you “new wine skins” for a “new wine”; new spaces that become clear and clean for God to fill as you wait on Him, and new spaces that become lush and vibrant through remaining in Him.

I wish you hope and also acceptance and surrender if things go completely upside down this year.

I wish you the ability to receive grace, because it is the most real gift- whether we actually accept it or not. I say it is real because so much of our judgment, criticism, efforts at self-improvement, and perceptions of how others or God view us are just making those wheels spin but getting nowhere and it’s not real. These attempts at being better are not the way, and they are surely not the truth and the life. Jesus is the Way. He is the Truth. He is the Life. We can get off the treadmill, and actually take His yoke upon us and move forward with Him, doing some real work, covering some real ground, instead. Amen, dear ones?

I wish us to go at His pace.

I wish us trust, obedience, and peace.

In Jesus’ name.

“And like a stream that may freeze

in the spring it comes back with the leaves

begins to flow and bring life

a stream will not remain still for too long

before it must go on.”

Posted on

The Roots of Control

I was going to write about something different today- I actually have a series up my sleeve- but in my Bible Study this morning, another issue sprang up that I really want to talk about from seriously personal experience.

And that topic is CONTROL.

“Controlling people” may or may not know this about themselves, but what they/we truly need is safety. They have some unresolved pain, fear, and sense of responsibility they may not know how to satisfy. They need assurance and clarity. They need encouragement and peace. They need to learn again to trust. They need to know they aren’t all alone up there keeping the world together.

We become controlling when we live out of a place of fear for too long, fear that settles in when we feel like no one is leading well and no one is meeting needs well and one day we wake up and we hate where we are. Subconsciously or right-out-loud, we say, “This is changing here and now, and I’m going to make it happen my way!” Sometimes this leads to healthy assertion, and sometimes it leads to trying to control things and people that are simply not our’s to manage. When this happens, there will almost always be anger as a result. If anger is turned outward, we know what that looks like: if anger is turned inward, it becomes depression.

Whether it is “real” fear, like major disruptions of trust and physical/emotional danger, or it is “felt” fear, like being constantly disappointed by someone’s lack of love and help, we develop defense mechanisms to protect ourselves from the memory of that pain as well as future pain.

But just like with all defense mechanisms, love can overcome the need for them! How can we best love people who constantly have to know what’s happening, seem to have to have it their way, or are never truly satisfied?

One, they need to know they aren’t alone. Understanding of how their minds work, communication of plans and ideas, and the reliability of team members can go a long way in being in a great relationship with someone who tends to be controlling. Believe it or not, “controlling people” don’t necessarily want to be in charge and they can handle being led—many are crying out to be led if they can relax and know they can trust their team to talk them through something when worries or questions come up. They might act like they want to be a Lone Ranger, but I don’t buy it. Fear is the driving factor in choosing to be an island.

The second way we can love people who struggle with this is, well, love. Not judging and being irritated by their high strung, frustrated, or critical behaviors will be hard, but we can choose to see behind those sin habits to the frantic person inside. We can help calm and soothe, we can help bring peace to those restless waves, and these behaviors might change quite quickly when those inner needs are addressed. We can also, in love, share the way their behaviors make us feel. We can encourage them with small challenges and insights. While we cannot change anyone, I’m gonna be a hippie here and say I believe in love and its power to change people!

SO. I can relate to both sides of this coin. I have controlling people in my life that I am beginning to see in a new, more compassionate, light. Also, in my fleshly, un-redeemed nature, I grew to be very controlling in my first couple years of marriage because those years felt chaotic after my structured, safe, tightly-held-together childhood and college years. It was a paradigm shift and a new type of relationship I did not have any skills to handle well. I had a strong sense of wanting to do everything in my newly adult life “right”, but felt a power struggle with my husband as his opinions of “right” didn’t always match mine. Also, I had major health problems that made me feel like I was in a power struggle with God!

My first session of counseling, to my remembrance, was with a very insightful woman when I was maybe around 35 years old. After probably starting out our session with a 20 minute personal monologue (verbal processor here!) she said, “So when did you start believing you had to be God?”

I remember feeling like the wind had been knocked out of me…and that I was talking to the right lady.

Control is ultimately fearing that we have this responsibility to do God’s job yet overwhelming pain comes when we realize we are failing. Of course we would be failing; the whole premise is wrong! God alone is God and God alone is good at being God, and we must understand the difference in our roles.

Will we let Him be Lord over every part of our lives or will we keep holding some things very, very close and out of His reach?

Will we trust Him to be Savior for our kids and loved ones, when we know there is nothing else we reasonably and prayerfully should be doing to protect and guide them?

Will we “be still and know that He is God”? (Ps. 46:10)

The possibilities of failure and pain will always be there.

But the pressure we put on ourselves to keep that failure and pain far from our personal doorstep can be relieved.

We can exhale. We can stop living from a place of fear and live from a place of love – knowing God will give us and our loved ones the perfect amount of help from on high when we need it, come what may.

Knowing Who He is gives us the sense of safety we need to bear with one another and dissipate our personal hold on all the things we carry.

“When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought me joy.” Ps. 94:19

Posted on

November

I haven’t done my usual Wednesday blogging in almost a month.

It has been a hard month…for so many people. The last blog I wrote was about believing, choosing to believe, that God is enough for those who are grieving or doubting. And that is what I have been doing as I wait and pray.

I’m thankful that God brings new opportunities every day – every hour really – to be filled by Him, to be renewed, to remember. Otherwise, how could we do this? How could we keep going? His Spirit and His Word really are our water and food. Our inner man can live abundantly, even in all this.

There were losses and funerals…there were painful conversations…there is chronic illness and questions and pain…there are severe issues in young lives that I care about…several in my immediate family were sick…and God keeps saying “hold on to Me.”

As a “helper”, as a listener, prayer-warrior, mom, wife, and friend, it can sometimes be hard to keep holding on to Him if I am holding on tight to others “in need.” When my focus gets on myself (and how I feel), or others (and how they feel), I begin to sink.

This isn’t about detaching from others, but it is about embracing the reality that my role is actually to keep my eyes on Jesus while asking others to join me.

Again, again, again, again – The exhale comes when we put our eyes on Him. When He is in His rightful place, we can be in our’s. That’s where rest is. That’s where strength is. That’s where joy is.

What I learned in November, again: It is no longer I that live but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. Galatians 2:20

Hang in there – by holding on to Him.

Posted on

Exchanges

Life in Christ is all about exchanges.

He exchanges our sin and failures for right standing with God.

He exchanges our focus on this fleshly life for a focus on what really matters, a Matthew 6:33 life, where we are seeking His Kingdom and His righteousness first, allowing the “other stuff” to be taken care of by the Father according to His perfect timing and love.

And He also exchanges our daily sadness, confusion, and weariness for Joy, Clarity, and Strength.

Let’s talk about that for a minute.

There is a time to grieve….a time to question, think, sit…and a time to rest, do nothing, let go.

These are necessities for growth, just like off days when you work out hard: You have to give muscles the chance to stretch back out after tightening, tearing. That’s how they grow.

But then your weakness is exchanged for strength.

Our training as believers, spiritually, is to keep going through pain, fires, trials, conflicts, disappointments, personal struggles, yet each time learning to come with them to Jesus and go through the process of an exchange!

We can experience trauma without becoming victims.

We can experience loss without becoming empty.

We can experience stress and pressure without becoming numb, hopeless, angry, and sick.

This is the power of Christ in us.

This is one of the benefits of seeking first His Kingdom, and living – in our hearts – already in His family, His Kingdom, not necessarily with our eyes on Heaven (like as in the “sweet by and by”) but on JESUS, the Author and Perfecter of our faith who endured the cross and sat down at the right hand of God the Father. He is reigning, He is loving, He is giving daily manna, for those in the Kingdom – even though our earthly lives are set in a disturbing, ever shaken, ever darkening place.

But this is the power of His exchange. This is where we have light in darkness. This is where we have peace in chaos.

We have to choose whether or not we will make the exchange.

Each day, I feel like Jesus says, “You can do this or You can let Me live and love through you. You can continue to just survive this job – relationship – time of healing – or You can fall into my arms and we will do this together. You can keep your eyes on the problem, or you can put your eyes on Me. I can be your obsession, your waking thought – My strength, My wisdom, My Word – or you will be obsessed with your own process and progress…It is your choice.”

Life is hard. Marriage is hard. Singleness is hard. Parenting is hard. Not parenting is hard. Work is hard. Not working is hard. Health is hard. Money is hard. People are hard. Not having people is hard!

But through Philippians 4:4-6 and Colossians 3:1-17 and James 1 and 2 Peter 1:3-11, actually the entirety of God’s Word, we see we have an opportunity for a continuous exchange of our thoughts for His, our perspectives for His, our goals for His, our wisdom for His…

And as He once gave His life for us, we give it back to Him.

Yes, we give up a lot in this exchange, relatively speaking…

But I can’t help but say, on the other side of the exchange that I made at one time and that I daily make, there is no true, real, abundant life without forsaking my life to hide myself in Him.

When I give Him my pain, yes, I may also be giving Him my freedom to do what I want with my life – but how was I planning to make it through life lugging that pain around anyway? How far was I going to get?

When I give Him my anger, yes, I may also be giving Him my money and what makes me feel safe and what I expected out of a relationship – but those three things were always an illusion and I’m better off without living my life trying to control them.

One of the methods of exchange – practically speaking – is worship and thanksgiving. When I give God my praise, in the midst of the battle, in the midst of the sorrows or questions, He goes and does something miraculous.

We can cast our cares, our sins, our failures, and everyone else’s, too, that are weighing heavy on our minds and hearts, clogging our avenue to peace and joy. We can lay them down…We can bless His Name…We can cling to His living Word…

We can come, and keep coming, for the joy of the Lord is our strength.