The dream
Fifteen years ago, I began a journey of awakening. The end of that journey exposed the beginning of my life. At long last, I saw the hard-to-face realities and easy-to-embrace fantasies in my childhood that led to everything else.
Fifteen years ago, I began a journey of awakening. The end of that journey exposed the beginning of my life. At long last, I saw the hard-to-face realities and easy-to-embrace fantasies in my childhood that led to everything else.
God identifies himself as Defender of the forsaken - especially women forsaken in any number of ways by their husbands, children forsaken in any number of ways by their parents, and foreigners forsaken in any number of ways by the citizens of a land. This same God counts it crucial that his people defend the cause of those who are easiest to abuse.
If you have been forsaken - by your parents, by your spouse, by people around you who count you "not one of us" - know this: When God finds you among the bereaved and discarded, he himself takes up your cause.
Most likely, none of us would choose brown and gray all year long. But if we don’t stop to appreciate what God has made beautiful in this time, we may get all our presents and miss all our moments.
In English Bible translations, phrases beginning "God who" often tell us what he has done or is doing. They show us God's works. But more, these phrases can give us insight into the heart of the One who does the works. They can teach us God's ways.
Even in suffering, even in exile, may you find growing within you: A life energetic and blazing with holiness, conceived by God himself. Life healed and whole. Laughter and singing. Genuine faith proved genuine. Living hope. One-anothering love. A future that starts now.
Learning to dance with God means being vulnerable, flexible, brave, as he frees us from the paralysis of the religious and teaches us to move in sync with him.
"I let go of all I have just to have all of You." - A song that has encouraged me in the night, "Worth It All," Meredith Andrews
Psalm 46:10 says, "Be still, and know that I am God." But the Hebrew verb translated "be still" actually means: "Decisively let go, or abruptly cease, something strenuous you are doing." It urges me to let go of the tug-of-war rope called enmeshment, that robs me of identity and intimacy.
It's the best-loved verse in Jeremiah, and God says it to exiles. He announces to people who feel they have no future at all: "I know what I have planned for you. I have plans to prosper you, not to harm you. I have plans to give you a future filled with hope."