All posts by RunAndBeStill
Chin Up Buttercup
In his kindness God called you to share in his eternal glory by means of Christ Jesus. So after you have suffered a little while, he will restore, support, and strengthen you, and he will place you on a firm foundation. (1 Peter 5:10 NLT)
Having a rough day? A rough week? This verse holds an infinite amount of comfort and promise within its words. May you believe it and claim it, as I have, and know, if you open yourself up to it, help is on the way! Be encouraged, strengthened, and restored!
Rise Up A Tree
I was reading through some old journal entries and came across the following that I had written in 2012 just before the new year. In light of the last few days it buoyed my spirit. I guess I need to take my own advice and encouragement. Maybe you can find some truth in it as well…
As I look towards a new year I find it amazing how much can be accomplished and changed within the scope of 365 short days. (Although some don’t feel so short at the time.) The small steps that we take every day will eventually add up into something bigger. My steps have definitely added up as I reached a personal milestone yesterday – mile 500! I would have never thought that possible except that all of those steps, sometimes painful, tired, and monotonous, did add up into something bigger and to look back and see it in its entirety up gives me a rush of excitement, and accomplishment, that is unparalleled! But that comes in part because of what my runs signify. A healthier me, mentally, physically and spiritually. When I was running yesterday, I heard for the first time, I Am A Seed by David Crowder Band (they are one of my favorites for running) and I couldn’t help but identify with the seed…
Oh I’ve been pushed down into the ground
Oh how I’ve been trampled down
So many feet on top of me
I can’t help but sink, sink, sink
Oh I’ve been pushed down into the ground
Oh how I have been trampled down
Lord I put my trust in thee
You won’t turn your back on me
Oh I am a seed, Oh I am a seed
I’ve been pushed down into the ground
But I will rise up a tree
There have been many times that I have felt trampled down, none of us are exempt from that. But this song shifted my thinking and the thought of this tree, stately and strong and beautiful, bursting forth from a seed trampled into the ground, gave me a wonderful feeling. It was such a powerful image. I stopped and thought about that process for a second. A seed is tiny and appears so inconsequential. It represents the beginning or starting point of all living things but inside of the seed is all that is needed to grow into something magnificent. And the most amazing part is that, given the proper conditions for growth, one tiny seed will produce so much more than itself. I also thought of Matthew 17:20, “You don’t have enough faith,” Jesus told them. “I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible.” Oh to have the faith to suspend all that we know and understand as reality and embrace the impossible…
How much more could God do with us if by His grace He can move mountains with mustard seed faith and He causes great oak trees to spring forth from tiny acorns? This next year, stop wondering “What if?” and induce your faith, let God take the reins, and continue putting one foot in front of the other even when you are weary, and I promise you, if you do, you will see that mountains were moved when you look back over 2014. Let this be God’s year and you will be able to accomplish more than you ever thought possible.
As I look back I have realized we don’t always see the mountains moving in front of us, sometimes
it’s a slow process and it’s only as we look in the rearview mirror that we are able to appreciate how far they have moved and how far we have come. I find myself continually amazed at God’s goodness and provision, in sickness, fear, and grief for certain, but also on the good days. He is right in our midst, everyday, if we open our eyes and ears, and soften our hearts to His presence.
My challenge for you this year, Be A Seed!
What can God accomplish through you this year?
Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more that we might ask or think. (Ephesians 3:20, emphasis mine)
I will rise up a tree!
If you want to check out the song, I can’t promise it won’t get stuck in your head.
A series of small explosions
This morning while I was breezing through the kitchen I caught sight of a Christmas present. A sign hanging above the mudroom doorway that says “The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.” A favorite verse, a needed reminder. As I went about my business and tried to focus my twitchy, squirmy thoughts together I was reminded that “still” is so often harder than it seems when it comes to our minds. (Maybe this is just a phenomenon I suffer from.) I was breezing through the kitchen with a load of laundry to add to the piles that needed washed, while mentally creating a list of things I needed to get from the store before the next big snow storm hits (new totals up to 10 inches in the next 24 hours with wind chill values of -25.) I was also digesting the last couple of days while looking around at the Christmas stuff that needs taken down (I feel like I just got it up!) and trying to figure out the upcoming week’s schedule for back-to-school, practices, travel, work, doctor’s appointments, etc. We ended 2013 and kicked off 2014 with a bang! Actually it was more like a series of small explosions. Curve balls that life keeps throwing and I try to keep batting away, so as not to strike out. It is mentally exhausting in addition to being at times physically trying. I am not complaining (at least not much) and I keep asking, “Really? More?” God really does have a sense of humor and my prayer the last couple of days is “Lord, I really don’t need any more raw footage to write about. Some quiet would be very much appreciated.” I refuse to ask the question, “What else could go wrong?” because I really don’t want to know. Nothing that has crossed the plate over the last few weeks has been a tragedy or crisis and I am thankful for that. There have been many stories very close to home over the holidays that are tragic and my heart breaks for families and individuals who truly are suffering right now. What I am talking about is more like what I would assume Chinese water torture would be like, mentally taxing. After a flu-filled “different Christmas” (3 different strains over 10 days) I was looking forward to escaping for a night to Amish country to celebrate 15 years of being married to my husband and very best friend. (Man, I love that guy!) We were going to watch some college football (I am a huge fan!) browse the shops and eat some wonderful food that I didn’t have to cook. Then winter storm Hercules hit and canceled our plans. Not a big deal, we celebrated at home, still watched football, and enjoyed our kids enjoying the sledding hill. We also had plans to finish Christmas vacation at an indoor water park with my sisters and their families. We checked in on Friday, the kids took a quick spin on the slides and my husband took our son to basketball. Five minutes after they left I got a notification from our security company that our the alarm was going off at home. So after he dropped our son at basketball he returned home to talk with the police. False alarm apparently, no footprints in the snow, nothing amiss in the house. Then came the call from the basketball coach, our son took a charge, went knee to knee with another player and his was swollen up like a balloon. We ended up in urgent care where x-rays were done, our daughter left to play in the water park with her cousins. The x-rays showed no fracture but a small white spot was discovered on his femur, not common and very disconcerting according to the physicians assistant. She wanted us to stay and wait while the radiologist read it, hoping to hear specifically about “the spot.” The official reading came back with no mention of the spot, only the news that nothing was broken. But what about the spot? What do we do with this piece of information? Is it something? Is it nothing? I guess that’s to be continued. (This after having a scare at Thanksgiving when he had an ekg because of some symptoms that led to a report of an enlarged ventricle and a thickening of his heart muscle. The report was later discovered to be inaccurate but not after 5 days of prayerful wondering, worrying, and waiting.) Friday’s diagnosis was a severe knee sprain, crutches and a knee brace for a week (which we already had from his prior knee injury 9 months ago) and a follow up for an MRI to make sure everything else is intact. (I am not so sure it is…) Three days later I am mothering a child who is frustrated about missing out on games, practices, sledding, the inability to walk up and down the steps and bend his still swollen and very sore knee. Our daughter, and her extremely sensitive skin, came home from the water park with a mysterious face rash, and then, we’ll call it the icing on the cake, the check engine light came on in our car on the way home from our tumultuous waterpark stay. So, to recap, in a 24 hour period, police, hospitals, rashes, and finally car trouble. Drip, drip, drip, drip, drip.
Now you are up to speed as I again breeze through the kitchen arms loaded down this time with Christmas things that need to find a home, mind loaded down with family, work, and ministry concerns and to-dos, and sense of being tired instead of rejuvenated after Christmas “vacation.” Drip, drip, drip, drip.
I need to remind myself of my new years resolution already, only 5 days in. Choose Faith.
And as I sit, finally still, and bring my thoughts from my head to the page, I am reminded of a few other things that I am sure will come in handy as we charge into a new year.
There are days when we need to laugh to keep from crying. And then there are days when we’ll have to laugh as the tears roll anyway. But laugh, always laugh.
Nobody likes to be benched but sometimes we need to “ride the pine” and get healthy again. Interruptions are not part of our plan but they are part of life. Remember always that God is in control, nothing is an accident. Take a deep breath and rest during your break so when your number gets called you are ready to go back in and give it 100% again.
This is real life, not a fairytale and in that some days are going to be good some days aren’t but don’t forget to be thankful. (1 Thessalonians 5:18) Some days are going to be hard but you don’t need to do it on your own, we can do all things through Christ. (Phil 4:13) There will be no words for some of the days we will have to face but you are never alone in any of it. (Isaiah 41:10) First, last, and always, prayer. In all of it, quit trying so hard because the Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still. (Exodus 14:14)
I leave you today with this, a very dear friend and mentor sent this to me as I was grumbling about everything that had been going on. A simple, yet effective prayer on days when the Chinese water torture seems to be getting the best of you.
Dear God, I don’t ask you to make my life easier, but I ask You to give me the strength to face every day. Amen
Still Moments – A Resolution
As 2013 comes to an end and you begin making all sorts of resolutions for how to make a better you and a better year for 2014 let me share some thoughts from Richard Edgley that I hope will challenge you, as they did me.
“Because of the conflicts and challenges we face in today’s world, I wish to suggest a single choice—a choice of peace and protection and a choice that is appropriate for all. That choice is faith. Be aware that faith is not a free gift given without thought, desire, or effort. It does not come as the dew falls from heaven. The Savior said, “Come unto me” (Matthew 11:28) and “Knock, and it shall be [given] you” (Matthew 7:7). These are action verbs—come, knock. They are choices. So I say, choose faith. Choose faith over doubt, choose faith over fear, choose faith over the unknown and the unseen, and choose faith over pessimism.”
A choice for 2014. A simple but sometimes extremely difficult choice. Faith. It’s the answer no matter what 2014 holds.
What’s your resolution this year? I’d love to hear from you!
One more sleep ’til Christmas
Tomorrow is the day, the big dance, the main event. As you go about all of your last minute preparations and attend to all of the final details I wanted to just take a moment and encourage you to find the beauty in it. Even if for a nano-second, close your eyes and revel in the noise of the season, of the chaos, of the family (even the extended visitors from afar.) As my wise-beyond-his-13-years son pointed out to me this morning we don’t know who will still be here next year. I may be a bit melodramatic this afternoon, we will blame it on the horrible flu (or food poisoning) that kept me up most of Sunday night but our family motto this Christmas has been “It’s just going to be a different Christmas.” Lots of traditions that are being switched up and changed. For me it’s a tough pill to swallow but has made me step back and realize that is just the stuff of the season. The where and when of the celebrations (even ones that until this year have been the same every year of my life) are less important than the people we spend them with, no matter where or when we have them. This season is about celebrating. Celebrating new life, celebrating our faith, and drawing in the ranks of family. So from my “different” Christmas to yours, I wish you a very merry Christmas. May you enjoy the celebration, wherever and whenever it may be.
The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David! (Luke 2:11 NLT)
Just when I was tempted to think all was lost…
a video from an unknown mall has taken my breath away as people join in song. I watched with tears streaming down my face.
We interrupt this Christmas celebration to bring you Joy…
This last “interruption” post has been on my to-do list since the beginning of the week. A week which started with another dead car battery. (My car now has a brand new one, I am not going to play that morning guessing game anymore.) So this meant that my 8th grader was unexcused for the 40 min that he missed while I charged the battery and drove the 20 min to school and has to make up that time. I was at two different hospitals that day, once to visit Hannah who had to be intubated early Monday morning and then to pick up my 3 year old niece while my sister sat with another family member at the ER. Tuesday was the day I had slated to bake Christmas cookies and wrap presents until I received a mid-morning call that said 8th grader was vomiting and needed picked up. So needless to say, it’s been quite a week, (and it’s only barely half over.) Thankfully, aside from assorted practices, my fifth grader has remained healthy and even keeled this week. Even still I have found myself asking a very important question as frustration begins creeping into my days. “Tragedy or inconvenience?” Sometimes in the midst it is easy to confuse the two.
My segment on joy was actually planned to be a video clip from a women’s program that I took part in last Friday evening. But true to the way of the week, first I couldn’t find the cable for the video camera and then the sound was sub-par. Soooo…here goes joy, in written form. I hope it will have the same impact.
And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” 13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, 14 “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” (Luke 2:8-14)
So not only did angels proclaim peace that night, they also promised great joy. Joy to the world, right? Tis the season for joy. But the fact is it’s been a rough year for many and there’s not much joy in sight this Christmas. Sadness and hurt are all we see. I understand that. Many of you know my story, but for those of you who don’t let me share just a bit with you. When I was 23 years old, we experienced the death of our son at 32 weeks into my pregnancy. That was in October. Do the math and you will find that I was due in the middle of December. What most people don’t know is that my plans for our Christmas cards that year were birth announcements. I had visions of two little boys on Christmas morning in matching pajamas, the whole bit. So for me, that Christmas was like the back-handed slap of life. I had only barely begun to heal from our son’s death when the hole that was left became ever more pronounced when there was no baby at Christmas. I can remember telling my parents” I am just not feeling it this year. ” It felt like joy had given up on me. No matter how hard I tried, and pretended for the sake of those around me I just couldn’t convince myself deep down. Ten years later I spent the entire Christmas season undergoing a series of medical tests that continued to bring more questions than answers. That entire season was overshadowed by the cloud of fear, no terror. All I knew was the doctors were very concerned which in turn made me very concerned, and has ended in a diagnosis of an extremely rare and incurable autoimmune disease. I get it if you are sitting here tonight, humoring whoever it is that invited you. But I am so glad you are here because let me tell you today as I stand on the other side of that fear and joy-lessness, sometimes you just need time, sometimes you need to take the outstretched hand of someone else who loves you even when you don’t want to, but no matter what, if you are going to find your way out, it always takes God. The miracle of Christmas is that your story isn’t over. My story did not end there. God is not indifferent to your pain. In fact, He left eternity and came to earth to show how much he cares. He came to live with us and die for us. Your story of mistakes, sadness, shame, and hurt, my story of grief and fear, are erased and re-written by God’s unmerited love. This Christmas, if you are looking for peace, for joy, for love, you’ll find it in Jesus because He is the promise. I bring you good news of great joy. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give you, straight from Jesus himself. For God so loved you and me that He sent His son to be born and die in a world where the no vacancy sign was lit. There is hope and I would love nothing more than to share that hope with you this Christmas.
It starts with making room…
Read the entire interruption series beginning with Hannah’s story, then Hope, Comfort, and finally, Peace.
We interrupt this Christmas celebration to bring you Peace…
When I originally interrupted your Christmas with Hannah’s story I promised to look at Hope, Comfort, Peace, and Joy. We have already looked at Hope and Comfort so today I interrupt your day with some peace…
What is it about Christmas that tugs on our heartstrings more than any other holiday? I become filled with such a sense of nostalgia, trying to make new memories that are steeped in the traditions of the past. If there was any doubt about the sentimentality of Christmas, look at some of our most beloved Christmas songs, “I’m dreaming of a white Christmas, just like the ones I used to know,” “Here we are as in olden days, happy golden days of yore. “There’s no place like home for the holidays.” Back when snow and mistletoe were the only things we needed to make Christmas. Christmas specials on tv were special because they were on once a year, not playing on a continuously looping cable channel. Where have those days gone? We sing the songs and try to chase down the feelings that go with them, running from store to store after the elusive, trying to buy Christmas. It has become a watered down holiday that starts at Halloween and ends for so many people anti-climatically in an exhausted heap on Christmas morning. Did our mothers and grandmothers keep this pace or did they understand something that we don’t? The world today is a fast-paced, immediate gratification, need, need, need, bigger, newer, shinier place. But at Christmas, with a soundtrack featuring Bing Crosby and Nat King Cole, I can close my eyes and picture my Norman Rockwell painting of Christmas. But the reality is more often a fighting, noisy, grouchy, to-much-to-do-not-enough-time production that stretches our patience and our bank accounts, accompanied to the tune of Dominic the Christmas Donkey. (How is that even a Christmas song by the way?) So how can we break through the chaos and the noise of this season and rediscover the wonder?
Here’s where it starts…
Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.”
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: “Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!” (Luke 2:8-14)
A baby is born, but not just any baby, a baby who injects peace and joy and love into a broken and hurting world. When the angels sang about peace on earth that first Christmas night I have to wonder if they had any idea what kind of promise they were making.
You know, one of my very favorite times at Christmas is late at night, when everyone else is in bed. I love to sit in the rocking chair with the lights off, bathed in the soft glow of the Christmas tree. The quiet, calming peace wraps around me like a soft blanket. It stands in such sharp contrast to the bright merriment of the day and gives me an opportunity to reenergize my goodwill on days when its spread thin. CF Richardson said, “If peace be in the heart, the wildest winter storm is full of solemn beauty.” Christmas is kind of like that wild winter storm but if we have peace in our hearts, Christmas, even in all of its demanding chaos, is beautiful. The key is peace. And peace is found on this night, wrapped in swaddling cloths, surrounded by farm animals, lying in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn. Is that what we do sometimes? Have we hung a no vacancy sign on our lives, whether or not we even realize it in our busyness and self-sufficiency? Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without the obligatory visit to the manger, most often it happens on Christmas eve, but is it just a short layover between dinner and Santa or is it something more?
It is so easy to get caught up in doing Christmas the way the world tells us Christmas should be done and lost in the expectations that we put on ourselves to create the perfect holiday, that we don’t spend time kneeling at the manager, allowing ourselves the gift of peace.
I love Christmas, I love the traditions, the baking, the presents, I love Santa. I am not suggesting that we remove those things from our celebrations. If anything think about how much more beautiful they would be when infused with peace and a deeper purpose to the season. Peace on earth, come to us. If you find yourself stressed out, and in search of the ever elusive peace we sing about, then I would venture to say that you have hung that no vacancy sign.
Please don’t misunderstand what I am saying. We don’t need to have an austere, stoic, fun-stripped, boring holiday, quite the contrary. Let me try to explain this in another way. I really, really, enjoy running. I didn’t always feel this way so I get that it might be a little bit sick. But let me share with you why I love running. I am at peace when I am running. The faster my feet the quieter my mind. This is where I worship my King, where I cry out to God my Father, where I find the centering force to remain at peace no matter what my crazy exterior or set of circumstances may look like. Peace, in my heart.
Don’t we all want that? Peace in the midst of the crazy? Peace that extends beyond Christmas day into our families, our marriages, our jobs? Peace from an illness. Peace from pain. Sometimes it feels like we are engaged in a great battle and all we want is a break, an opportunity to say “Time out!” so that we can catch our breath before re-engaging, especially during craziness of the holidays. Max Lucado says, “We cannot have the peace of God until we have peace with God.” Looking for peace without God is like trying to swim upstream, it is exhausting, a constant battle. We can’t fight our way to peace; it’s not something you “do.” This peace, a lasting heartfelt peace, is a gift from God.
“For unto us a Child is born. Unto us a Son is given. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6)
We interrupt this Christmas celebration to bring you Comfort…
“They will call him Emmanuel, which means ‘God is with us.'” (Matthew 1:23)
What is the one thing that most of us want when everything seems to be falling apart around us? I don’t think I would be alone in saying I am looking for a friend. I am looking for someone who loves me to commiserate with or a shoulder to cry on. I am desperate for someone to tell me that everything is going to be ok, even if they don’t believe it or see how that ever could be. We are looking for comfort in companionship.
Of all of the names that Jesus has in the Bible, one of my very favorite is Emmanuel. The reason? God is with me. No matter what I face today or tomorrow. God is by my side through every bit of it.
This is what makes the Christmas story so beautiful. ”And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld His glory. the glory as of the only begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth” (John 1 :14) God sent Jesus to Earth to humble himself. The world has never witnessed a more genuine act of self-humbling. So completely did our Lord humble Himself that He surrendered His will to the will of His Father in heaven. His desire was to do the will of the Father, therefore He could testify, “I do always those things that please Him” (John 8:29). It was humiliation for the eternal Son of God to become flesh in a stable, and then to dwell in a humble home in subjection to a human parent. God was ”sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin” (Romans 8:30). Only eternity will reveal the depth of meaning for Him and for us found in those words, ” He humbled Himself.”
Isaiah 43:2 says “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.” Notice in this verse it says when you face trouble, not if.
We are going to have bad days, weeks, years even. Christmastime is no exception. In fact, emotions are magnified during this season making our highs higher and our lows lower. The question is when you find yourself hurting, where do you turn?
We all face trials, hurts, suffering and Jesus understands our journey through these deep waters. During His days here on Earth, Jesus himself was tired, lonely, hurt, hated, beaten, rejected, persecuted, misunderstood and mistreated, mocked and laughed at, betrayed, temped, and condemned. He has felt forsaken, lost loved ones, and experienced pain. He understands how it feels to be separated from God. Imagine Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane. It is late at night, Jesus is walking His own dark path. He knows the time is coming for his death and the fate that awaits Him. Jesus says His “soul is crushed with grief to the point of death.” (Matthew 26:38) He is distraught, anguished, tormented.
Does your soul feel as if it is crushed to the point of death? Is your mess so big you don’t even know where to begin digging in order to clean it up? Give it to Jesus, he has been where you stand today and can relate to what you are going through. Look again at Isaiah 43:2 and the promise that God makes you, “…I will be with you.” What does Matthew 1:23 say Jesus’ name is? Emmanuel. He wants to give you comfort and hope and walk with you through whatever pain you are experiencing. He wants to be there for you!
It is why He sent His son.
This is what we celebrate.
The gift of “God with us.”
Rejoice, rejoice Emmanuel.
Take some time today and listen to “How Many Kings” by Downhere and allow it to really penetrate your heart. May you find the true source of comfort and friendship we are all so desperately seeking.
Run and Be Still 