One of the first things I read today was a post that a friend shared from the Christian band, Casting Crowns. It was talking about how we often go to church pretending that everything is fine; when in fact, we are beat up and wounded. And yet, church is the place for us to join together in our brokenness. It should be a safe place to be transparent about our journey. The comment that I loved the most from the band, I will quote directly. “Your scars are a road map to God’s grace in your life.” It just reinforces the beauty found in the pain when you believe that our scars reflect God’s grace.
That is such a precious thought to me and it takes me right to the gift of the cross. The scars of the cross provided the ultimate gift of grace. I am always amazed how we get to experience the meaning of the bigger gifts and lessons of Christ through the circumstances and the relationships in our lives. Maybe if we really believed and trusted our journey as a reflection of God’s grace, we would be better able to share the burdens that we and others carry.
I have been aware for a long time what a privilege it is when someone shares their heart with you. I had one of my special friends with whom I have reconnected exchange some messages last night and today mentioning that there was a lot swirling around in his mind. When I asked what was swirling around, he responded with great openness. By the end of that exchange, we acknowledged that our experiences open up a unique space to provide support to someone else who is walking a similar path. It is those same scars and grace that provide hope and encouragement to others who are struggling.
In order to be able to do that, there are a few lessons that come to mind. The first lesson is that we have to give ourselves a break. Your experience doesn’t have to be totally resolved and wrapped up in a bow to be valuable. It doesn’t even matter if you keep tripping over the same old stones like fear on the path. We all struggle with moving forward at times. There are lessons and gifts of grace that come even in that. It requires humility to acknowledge that we are weak or that our lives are imperfect. That’s ok. It gives God lots of runway to redeem the situation. So, release the burden of perfection, shame, or anything else you carry around that tells you that you are not equipped to support through sharing your story or brokenness. God can make a “Message out of Mess”. Our souls are created to yearn for the grace felt from being understood. Sometimes all somebody really needs is to feel understood and who best to do that than someone who has or is walking a similar path.
The second lesson is to listen for the opportunity to love somebody by engaging in their journey. I got to experience the blessing of this today. After church, I stopped by to have my nails done. A woman around my age came in with her mother to have a manicure done. I noticed that the daughter was quite careful with her mother and extremely loving. It could have been that they just always got along that way. However, I suspected that it was more than that.
It just so happened that the daughter finished 10 minutes or so before her mother and was sitting by me. So, I asked her if her mother lived with her. She ended up sharing that her mother had a quick onset of dementia after some successive surgeries that required anesthesia to which the doctors attribute her memory decline. She shared a bit about the challenge of losing the mother that she had known her whole life, finding her a new, safe environment for her mother, and the toll it had taken on her health as a result of the stress of it all. My heart was touched that she opened up to me like that. She ended on a note of love and heartfelt gratitude that she was thankful that there was place that cared for her mother well and was close by. I just responded that she was lucky to have her daughter. I watched her tears come and a big smile. She thanked me in a way I could tell that it was an encouragement to her. Maybe, it was an opportunity for her to share her burden for the moment. It was a moment that I felt was ordained. I heard God’s urging in my soul and reached out. Our souls are created to love and be an active tool of God’s grace. So, Listen for God’s urging in your soul. He calls us to love in the moment. And, sometimes, it’s a family member or friend and sometimes it’s a woman sitting next to you at the nail salon.
Lastly, trust that God is in the journey and that he’s not just there to catch you when you fall. He is in every step, supporting, teaching and guiding all along the way. It is so easy for me to lose sight of this. I have been working on Step 3 which talks about turning our will and our lives over to the care of God. As I was talking to my sponsor about how I have done over the last week since my younger son left for college. I mentioned that I was really struggling with not knowing what was going on. Did he have his books? Is it a challenge getting from one class to the other on time? How’s the food? And on and on… She kindly said to me, “I guess you’re still not turning over your will and life to God.”
And she was right. I have to trust that my son still has a parent there walking his path. This transition time is my journey. Regardless of the journey, the more you trust in God, the more you are able to see and experience his grace. And, the more you do that, the more you are willing to be transparent about the journey. You can see the beauty that rises from the ashes. Your soul is created to be in relationship with God. So trusting that God is in your journey with you, allows you to have faith that the scars of the journey will reflect God’s grace. When you know that, really know that, you are excited to be called in faith to enter into someone else’s journey no matter exactly where you are in yours!
With that said, I wanted to ask that you enter into some difficult journeys that I heard about yesterday from my home in Mississippi. Any of us can enter into these families’ journeys through prayer. There is young man who fell ill during a Friday night football game. He is in critical condition and not awake. The Wilbanks family needs your prayers. There have also been at least 5 kids hospitalized from Mississippi State University after smoking pot laced with a designer drug similar to LSD called N-bomb, 25I or Smiles. I read an article that said it could be the most deadly designer drug to date. Get educated and talk to your kids. I read one parent whose child told them that he smoked pot because he thought it was safer than alcohol. His pot was laced with this. All of it has the potential to be unsafe. These families do not know what the health outcome will be. There is sustained mania and other personality changes. The article said there are other long term effects outside of overdose that include seizures and kidney damage. This may sound a bit melodramatic but there is a drug war focused on our kids and there are enemies in this battle. We have got to battle back though our own education, educating our kids, and not dismissing behavior as normal adolescent behavior. It can be life and death.
So, I run today in support of these families and the difficult journey that they are on. Run with me through prayer!
No comments:
Post a Comment