Have you struggled with the idea of church? I know I sure have! I wrestle with the idea of needing to be in a building every week at the same time—when I could be resting, when I could be with God any other day. I think that brick and mortar is not important–we are the building. It is us as the servants that do His work, not a building. But then I miss the importance of the beginning of this verse: WE. Together.
That is what church is about. Working together, worshipping, praying, praising, giving, encouraging, being in fellowship. We cannot do this alone. Even with God us in us. It is so much better shared with others! It has so much more significance! It has so much more impact!
There are days that I start with God, and He stays the center of my thoughts, and my day goes so nicely. There are days, that, well, I don’t and the day follows suit. Have you found this? When we have God at the forefront of our thinking and reasoning His peace just seems to radiate out to everything that happens, to all we meet–no matter how bad the day might be. Don’t you love when you can feel His love reaching out like little tendrils encircling and pulling you close. One of the best feelings ever.
Sometimes the Bible is straightforward with its meanings. Sometimes Jesus meant for us to look deeper and find the extra teaching that is between the lines. I think this is one of those verses. So many of us are imprisoned by so many different emotions: grief, bitterness, disappointment, betrayal, fear, anger, loneliness. Many of us are tortured by situations we cannot control. It is so easy to write off their prison as self-inflicted or not as pressing as other visible prisons. But actually these people need us to reach out to them even more–they need us to be that one person in that one moment who is willing to look past the bars. Think today of someone who may be in a prison of their own construction. Be the person to rattle those chains.
Oh, how true this is! When I am upset and plagued by the trials of the world, my body reflects the fatigue my heart and mind feel. I think of the bad times as cold, removed, alone. And the good are warm, connected and full. Embracing. Jesus is our way to that heart at peace. He truly cares for us in all ways. Sometimes we need to go through the blues to understand and be grateful for the peace that warms our hearts and limbs. So we must embrace all aspects of life and faith and trust that our life is eternally good in His hands.
Oh, I long to change the world. To fix everything. But that is not my role. The only one capable of that is Christ! But I can affect one person, one moment at a time.
As the art teacher I see a LOT of kiddos and adults every day–400 kids cycle through my classroom over a 3 day period. I often have to remind myself that if I only affect ONE of them I am doing all that I can. I am making a difference to that ONE. Maybe you see lots of people, maybe you rarely see anyone. But we are all changing others. Let’s just make sure that we are changing them in a POSITIVE way. Changing them with love that Christ leads us to use.
Love can be so many different things, be shown so many different ways. It can fill giant spaces, it can fill in all the tiny gaps. The Bible records all of the options for showing love. But one thing is certain, we are called to love. all.
God carries us through the valleys and up and over the mountains. I heard a sermon last fall online that stuck with me. The mountaintops don’t support life–very little grows up there. It looks gorgeous and seems like the best part. But there are always more summits in the distance. But the valleys, oh the valleys. They are filled with growth, renewal, freshness. Yes, it also has its rough parts. But it the valleys that give us the sustenance to reach for the summits.
We will always have valleys and summits, but with Jesus by our side we will walk them with confidence and peace.
I told you in the last post that we had an issue with one of my fellow teachers bullying my son. It got bad enough that we filed an incident report, then the school investigated, the police investigated, and she was charged, and 4 months later she pled guilty. This was not an easy decision or thing to do at all. I had stomachaches, headaches, heartaches, nightmares. T was even worse off. We never considered backing away though–this was too important. This wasn’t the first kid who felt like she bullied them. I knew my own job was on the line. I knew my relationship to co-workers was on the line. But I also knew we needed to stand up for the kids who never spoke up. I knew we needed to stand up for kids that could have been in the future.
I only had the strength to do this because of my faith in Jesus Christ. He gave us peace and strength through the entire process. I never once thought I was fighting this, Jesus fought it for us. We handed it over to Him. Every time the aches came I prayed. I prayed with T on a regular basis. And Jesus always took it for us. He made it possible to trust Him.
If we had backed down, if we had not trusted this to Christ, the reality is we would STILL be facing this on our own. I learned more than ever that Jesus has the capability to handle anything, and He will, when we hand it over to Him. And for that I will be eternally grateful.
Well, Hello there! I hope these new posts actually make it to people. LOL! I have been away a long time, and made some technical changes. (I am back to simple WordPress hosting, so some of my tech may have disappeared. I just couldn’t justify the cost of $50 a month anymore when I barely have time to do this. ) I left Facebook completely while my family dealt with an issue with a co-worker/teacher who hurt my little guy (that has finally resolved and kiddos in our building are safe from that bullying now).
But we have yet another snow day and I actually scanned in some of the finished artwork from the last few months. I am not nearly as prolific as I once was, but I do try to paint for a little bit each morning. And many of my pieces have definitely been more journal style as I worked through some anxiety. I post photos sometimes on Instagram–so much easier, so much less politics, and smearing.
I have been giving in other areas. And as I sat to blog today my husband gave me a look like I am crazy–because he knows how full my schedule already is. But I still love giving my artwork back to others to enjoy here, and hopefully I can keep this alive to some degree. So please enjoy the new pieces over the next month or so.
Do you ever feel like you have regained your sight about a situation? Maybe it is what you wanted to realize, maybe not. But God will help us see, He will carry us. That is all the more reason to follow and glorify!
