The blessing of mourning
There is a time to mourn. And much fights against our doing it. But what short-circuits our grief also blocks us from Jesus’ promise of comfort and blessing.
There is a time to mourn. And much fights against our doing it. But what short-circuits our grief also blocks us from Jesus’ promise of comfort and blessing.
The challenge in any time of seasonal shift is not to let the messiness keep you from ending what needs to be ended and starting what needs to be begun.
"A woman with the gift of prophecy has to be very careful," the preacher said. "What she hears from God, she is not to speak but to take to her prayer closet.”
Mini-post. A prayer song that gave me words when I had none.
God is hunting for hearts. “Not hearts of paper and lace,” he says. “I’m seeking human hearts that are open, tender, alive.”
Where two malignant narcissists ruled, so did ruthlessness. Where evil seemed invincible, Mordecai and Esther seized on two surprising sources of hope and life.
When God’s people push against, instead of moving with, his Spirit, he knows the situation is dire. He sounds the alarm: My people aren’t breathing! Code blue!
Receiving and releasing the Breath of God is key to getting the toxins out and the life-giving stuff in, no matter what you're going through.
Was there grief in that ark? Yes! Was there tension? Absolutely. And anger. And fear. So many emotions; such great loss. Yet through it all, they were upheld.
Some illusionists fool us to amuse us. Abusers and abusive systems fool us to control us. Freedom and life hinge on seeing the illusionists we have not seen.