You are NOT named by your circumstances.
She Reads Truth
My life has been stilled due to surgery.
I'm not a fan.
At all.
Slow doesn't seem to suit me.
On top of the surgery, life has thrown me a curve ball.
One that I don't feel I can share yet.
I will....someday.
Most likely sooner rather than later.
I believe there is beauty in transparency. Even if it's raw & hurts to look at.
"There are some real problems with projecting a perfect image. First of all, it's simply not true--we are not always happy, optimistic, in command. Second, projecting the flawless image keeps us from reaching people who feel we just wouldn't understand them. And third, even if we could live a life with no conflict, suffering, or mistakes, it would be a shallow existence. The Christian with depth is the person who has failed and learned to live with it."
Brennan Manning
I have failed (oh, so many times, friends) & I am learning to live with it.
Even, dare I say, embrace it.
It's the ugly beautiful that Ann Voskamp writes so eloquently about in her book
One Thousand Gifts.
Or, as Elisa Morgan writes....
"One that is broken--and yet still beautiful. Or maybe a legacy that is beautiful because it's broken, When we sit among the shards of our shattered hopes--fingering the fragments that we know will simply not go back together again--we are just where God wants us. You see, he doesn't just sweep all our fragments into the dustpan and carry us to the trash. Into our breaking comes God's beauty. And, through our breaking, God sculpts a beautifully broken legacy."
My legacy will be one that is broken....shattered even.
But, it can be beautiful.
That for those who LOVE God everything works unto good, even sin.
Augustine
In Isaiah 40 in The Message (my favorite version ever)...
"Why would you ever complain, O Jacob, or, whine, Israel, saying,
'God has lost track of me.
He doesn't care what happens to me'?
Don't you know anything? Haven't you been listening?
GOD doesn't come & go. GOD LASTS.
He's creator of all you can see or imagine.
He doesn't get tired out, doesn't pause to catch His breath.
And He knows everything, inside & out.
He energizes those who get tired,
Gives fresh strength to the dropouts..."
Maybe this season finds you sitting among the pieces...
maybe you've got your trusty glue gun at your side
trying to put it all back together. Or, if you're a super crafter,
because you've been sitting among these pieces before...
your E-6000 glue.
If you are, might I suggest to you....look for the beauty in the brokenness.
Stop trying to piece it all together so it looks "presentable" again.
Forget what others are thinking (and, let's be honest, they aren't really thinking all that much about us) & focus on what He is thinking.
And, I challenge you with more of Ann Voskamp...
"HOW do I have the HOLY vision in this mess? How do I see GRACE & GIVE THANKS,
FIND JOY in this sin-stinking place?"
Friends,
Your God
is
BIGGER
than
your MESS.
.
My anthem for this legacy of brokenness...
I will bless the Lord forever
And I will trust Him at all times
He has delivered me from all fear
And He has set my feet upon a rock
And, I will not be moved, and I'll say of the Lord
You are my
SHIELD,
my STRENGTH,
my PORTION,
DELIVERER,
my SHELTER,
STRONG TOWER,
my VERY PRESENT HELP
in time of need
Whom have I in heaven but YOU?
There is NONE I desire beside you.
Oh, friend....YOU are NOT named by your circumstances.
Your legacy...
My legacy...
it is beautifully broken.
"What makes authentic disciples is NOT visions, ecstasies, biblical mastery of chapter & verse, or spectacular success in the ministry, but a capacity for faithfulness. Buffeted by the fickle winds of failure, battered by their own unruly emotions, & bruised by rejection & ridicule, authentic disciples may have stumbled & frequently fallen, endured lapses & relapses, gotten handcuffed to fleshpots & wandered into a far country. Yet, they kept coming back to Jesus."
Join me if you are broken & come back to Jesus.
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