Trusting God In New Seasons

  My roles have always been well defined.  I was married to the same man for 51 years.  I was wife, mom to 5 children, then over time grandmother to 17.  Charles was sick for a long time, but he was a fighter and seemed to be able to push through with his faith, medication, his strong beliefs, and come out on the other side.

Only then …he didn’t.  God called him home and he no longer had to fight every day just to survive. 

OUR WORLDS CHANGED

Not only did his world change, but mine did also.  I was numb and walked in a fog for weeks… even several months.  I couldn’t ‘get started’ in my new normal.  I felt disoriented and had a terrible time focusing on anything.  

I did all the ‘regular things’ that my day required, but it was like I was someone else.  I’d lost my purpose.  Even my love of writing seemed so far down a dark pit, retrieving it seemed impossible on most days.

A GLIMMER OF HOPE

Finally….finally, I began to see a glimmer of hope, of light that motivated me enough to keep putting one foot in front of the other with the intention of being in that light again.  I was fortunate because eventually I did find ‘me’ again and even the gift God gave me long ago....to again put thoughts and words on paper.  

But my writing has changed too.  I’m not the same person I was before Charles died.  Oh, certainly, I am the same in many respects.  But perspective has changed.  Meaning and purpose have evolved in ways I wouldn’t have even imagined.  

       Still, I’m not trapped anymore.  I’m not lost in the mire of’ what ifs’ or ‘shoulda’, ‘coulda’ and ‘where did time go? or How am I going to get to where I need to be? or even regrets and wondering if I’d done better as Charles’ advocate with his doctors, might he still be here?

WE ALL MAKE MISTAKES

Mistakes make us feel small and insecure and yet, they are seemingly impossible to escape.  Add these to the negative thoughts we keep replaying in our minds, and it can be downright debilitating.  They can paralyze, create anxiety, anger, bitterness, and stress levels most of us can’t live with!

This is why an intentional mindset, demonstrates how important it is to let go of past regrets and failures.  God urges us to focus on future goals despite the obstacles which rear their ugly heads, in all kinds of ways, and threaten to dissolve our resolve!

GOD IS 'DOING A NEW THING'

God has this unique way of ‘doing a new thing’ in our lives when we are open to the opportunity.  He gives us a promise we can cling to when life has beaten, battered and broken our hearts.  Even before Paul, God said through Isaiah (Is 43:18-19)

       "Forget the former things… See, I am doing a new thing!”  This is powerful when we let go of the ‘former things’ and allow God to fill us with new life and hope.  He’s promising to make a way for us!

My life is once again in a kind of rhythm…. It’s still very different than before Charles passed.  But I have a ‘new vision’, a new excitement in listening to His voice leading me in places I’d never dreamed!

LIFE HAPPENS

I didn’t want my Charles to leave me.   But life happens, —and death is part of life. Now God is going to use this painful event in ways that are still surfacing and totally blowing my mind!  That I could create something special for widows (or others who grieve) is an amazing way to help others while easing my own pain and allow healing.

God is actively creating a ‘new thing’ which continues to ‘spring up’!  It is no less than ‘divine intervention’ at a time when I wondered if I’d ever feel the warm sunshine not only warm my body, but also my soul—and my heart.  

TRUSTING GOD IN HARD TIMES

It’s a wonderful reminder to trust God during uncertain and hard times, even if it doesn’t make sense.  I’ve heard trust described as ‘actionable faith’…to look forward, accept the change, and climb out of the pit of old familiar patterns.  

    Perhaps you too, need to trust God to do 'a new thing' in your life. Be still, and 'know' that He is God!

Photo Credit: Family Roles & Responsibilities 

Photo Credit: A Glimmer Of Hope

Photo Credit: Forgetting the Past and Looking Forward

God Is Doing A New Thng

 

  Recently I went shopping for garden soil I plan to use in my new garden box.  I’ve never used a garden box before and look forward to utilizing less space for my garden, as well as, seeing less weeds!

WEEDS GROW QUICKLY

There was discussion between friends about how weeds will grow twice as fast as any seed you plant in the ground and even after being pulled out, seems to have enough gumption to come right back again!  

          I can attest to this, since my husband and I, before he passed, traveled.  We’d, with great 'delight’ plant our spring garden, be gone a few weeks, and by the time we got back we could barely find the row the seeds were planted in!  It looked like we had never planted.  Instead it left the image of neglect and misplaced energy!  Just finding the plants were challenging!  

SPIRITURAL WEEDS

When I consider our spiritual lives, it can actually be a bit similar.  As believers when we are focused on fellowshipping with other believers regularly we are reminded of the importance of studying God’s Word daily. Meeting with others regularly, and living a godly life, are more godly habits we tend to do a bit better.

But when we are absent for several weeks regardless of the reason, it's hard to 'get back into the rhythm.   Whether it’s traveling, not feeling well, making the decision to ‘get things done around the house’ on our day off, or a hundred other reasons to stay away from church, it’s super easy to ‘forget’ —or neglect -- the habits we’d been so careful about before.

GOD DOES A NEW THING

Sometimes we must be jolted back to reality.  God does a ‘new’ thing!  It may or may not be to our liking!  We may find we’ve lost the hope that God still works in our lives.   Or we may have need to let go of a past hurt or our focus is far off.  The weeds growing in our lives have crept in and taken over what was once a beautiful flower (or vegetable) garden!

When this happens, and we reflect on ‘our’ plan, we see we’ve gone down a completely different path.  While God wants to get us on track, sometimes he takes us down an unfamiliar ‘side street’ we’d never expected.  We are asked to wait while his timing comes to fruition, and it doesn’t look at all like what we expected!

GOD SEES THE WHOLE PICTURE

This can leave us frightened and even more confused!  How can we trust in a God who doesn’t seem to make sense?  We are told Biblically God’s ways are not our ways, nor are our thoughts’s like God. (Isaiah 55:8-9)  He can see the entire picture.  We are looking out through a very narrow lens.

FEAR CAN IMMOBILIZE US

Fear can keep us from recognizing new opportunities, we’d never noticed before in an uncertain future.  Sometimes we doubt our personal abilities and just want to wait until everything works out.  

      But it doesn’t "just" work out, and we still wait, not sure what's next while no longer trusting in the God who knows everything. Sometimes, we get impatient and we attempt to  take 'control' and make decisions which make the weeds even worse!

WEEDING OUR SPIRITUAL GARDEN

The weeds in our spiritual garden often need to be confronted and ‘dealt with’ and ultimately destroyed.  The fear we feel, doubt, and waiting for things to ‘look right’ are not from God.  Those are Satan’s attacks on our relationship with God.  Satan wants nothing more than to keep us confused and afraid to move forward.  He wants us to miss God’s nudging, so we miss the opportunities of seeing, ‘God is doing something new’ and the new ‘thing’ is often just what we needed!

Photo Credit: Garden Prep

Photo Credit: A Weedy Garden Photo

 Credit: Fear Can Immobilize Us

Harnessing The Silence

 

        Have you ever noticed that people don’t talk to each other anymore when you’re in a doctor’s office, or anywhere where ‘waiting’ is an essential part of the journey?  Even at the vet office when an animal is getting a check up, conversation is stilted and often abrupt. It’s like people don’t know how to socialize anymore.

I tend to be the odd person who will attempt to start a conversation with people in a long line at the cash register, or waiting in a doctor’s office….unless they are honed in and focused on their digital device, which is often just a game to pass the time.

Even in a restaurant people will have their phones right beside their plates so that if it pings they can take care of the message immediately.  I admit, I get horribly frustrated.  It's like the person across the table--with whom you're sharing a meal, is not nearly as important as the person sending the text you're getting from your phone. 

Other people will have some kind of noise in their home, like the TV or something to drown out the silence.  It almost seems like quiet is too threatening, and intrusive to the way we want to live.  I’m the reverse!  I want the quiet and can’t think if it’s noisy! 

I like music, but even with that, if I’m trying to focus on something, even that noise is a distraction!  

Some will say we’re afraid of our thoughts if it’s too quiet. I wonder if that’s true?  When it’s quiet, our thoughts come to the surface…our fears, doubts, questions and more.  I wonder if we think about those things we’re afraid we’ll somehow expose of what we don’t want others to know; or are afraid to even know about ourselves?

For me quiet is a place of peace.  It’s a place where I can find myself.  The quiet allows me to connect with God at times where I couldn’t, if it were ‘noisy.’  I like my quiet times when my mind wanders all over the place; sometimes flitting in so many directions, it seems like a cobweb, with absolutely no connectivity! 

But many times when my mind is jetting off somewhere, it’ll land on something I can seriously think about, write about, or even pray about.  I like the opportunity to work through the tangle and see where it leads me.  

It seems like in the silence is where I learn to trust God.  I know God can still the storm, both a physical one and the one in my heart when it’s fighting to make sense of loneliness, restlessness, impatience and a desire to make a difference.  It gets so twisted inside my head, I have to let Him sort it out.  

      But there is power in the Holy Pause.  God has the ability to calm me in the midst of chaos.  I still quake often when things go sideways, but I know if I’m steady in the ‘quiet time’ with Him, the meltdowns are a lot less dramatic!  

Photo Credit: Patients waiting using Social Media 

Photo Credit: People in Restaurant on Social Media 

Photo Credit:  Noise at home 

Photo Credit: Silence 

Be Still And Know That I Am God

  I watched the video of Ilia Malinin skating to the song ‘Fear’ by NF.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqfLVv9Rqtg&list=RDKqfLVv9Rqtg&start_radio=1    The performance was incredible, as was the music. The lyrics  (to me) describe an overwhelming fear of the darkness that’s beginning to knock at his heart and mind’s door, as the world around him is caving in.  He cries out to God as he’s spiraling in the depths of despair. He’s lost his will, his joy and everything that ever mattered to him. Oddly enough, this sounds a bit like Job from the Bible.

SOCIAL MEDIA OVERLOAD

Our world is filled with noise from all sides and we don’t know what to do with it.  We have constant social media posts which keep our eyes, ears and mind in continual motion; news from all sources that rarely focus on anything positive, our phones which ding and ping with texts, and videos and political coverage which is overwhelming.  Add to this the time spent playing games and scrolling on our devices, means it never stops.  All this noise and constant movement doesn’t allow for a moment to rest our minds.

                                                                              SO MUCH NOISE 

I read recently an article that suggests this overwhelming of our minds could possibly be the catalyst for some of the mental illness phenomenon across our country.  Even the words from the song Ilia Malinin was skating to was someone struggling against the noise in his mind!

      We are inundated with negativity, the constant bewailing of all the ills of whoever is posting on social media, lies that infiltrate what we hear and read in the news because it’s skewed to the perception of the announcer, or a vindictive person who can’t tell right from wrong.  What if ‘stillness’ could be the best medicine for mental illness? 

WEAK AND VULNERABLE

Our bodies, when pressed with continual fatigue will falter.  Our immune system becomes weaker, leaving us vulnerable for illnesses, breaks and bruises, causing heart attacks, migraines and a huge host of other symptoms directly related to the over use and lack of care, for our bodies!  It isn’t something we planned on; we just go, go, go, because that’s the expectation of society.  Busy means productive.  Productivity means progress. Progress means a bigger paycheck, a chance to climb another rung on the proverbial ‘ladder’……

OUR MINDS EXHAUSTED

Could our minds perhaps have the same dilemma?  With the negativity in our
world, compounded with the stress of expectations in our workplace, our day to day lives, to our schedules, families, extracurricular activities, and to-do lists, could we be causing overload to the point of break down?

BE STILL

But then there’s the single verse from Psalm 46:10 which says, ‘Be still and know that I am God.’  I’m one of those people who find it difficult to just slow down.  While I’m not into all the media hype and other noises that could cloud my day, slowing down is hard for me.  I write, think, and seem to process all the time.  It seems there is always something to be preparing, to write about, to share!  

  Yet, God whispers ‘Be still’.  Perhaps on those days when I’m feeling a little overwhelmed with what I’m working on and God whispers those words…’Be still’… I need to just stop and listen…. What’s He telling me?  What does he want to tell me? Am I listening?

'BE STILL AND KNOW THAT I AM GOD'

Are we missing the moments with God that are simply an invitation into His presence, where we can find calm, peace, fullness, and ease the sense of striving?  What would happen, if literally, when we feel a bit overwhelmed, or hear his whisper to ‘be still’ we took a deep breath and for just sixty seconds, invite God to take control and allow Him to release the tension that’s threatening to pull us under?

When we do this, we are allowing God to work in our lives.  That's presence.  God does not tremble at the noise around us.  He has total control and wants us to allow his power to reign as only He can, offering us calm. 

        ‘Be still’…and know He is God!

Photo Credit: Man Ice Skating

Photo Credit: Social Media Overload 

Photo Credit: So Much Noise 

Photo Credit: I Need A Break!

Photo Credit: "Be Still And Know That I Am God'

In God's Time

I read a devotion this morning about ‘God doing something new’, and it caused me pause.  Having lost my husband over a year ago, I’ve struggled some with ‘what do I do now?”  I feel like I’m in this ‘in-between place’ which is hard to describe.  On some days I’m in a tunnel which hides both the entry and the exit.  Other days I see a glimmer of sunshine on one end and gives me the faith and hope I need to keep moving forward, yet I’m not there yet!

WAITING IS HARD

Waiting is hard and doing something while we wait, which we believe is the ‘right thing’, yet still undefined, can be a bit intimidating!  Oddly enough, however, I don’t really feel like I’m floundering; just waiting.

We live in a culture trained by microwaves, overnight shipping and instant results from the computer, which runs counter to waiting….especially if it seems excruciatingly slow. Biblically, this is exactly as it can happen.  Joseph endured years of imprisonment before God revealed his purpose.  The disciples, great followers of Jesus didn’t understand all of Jesus’ teaching until after the Resurrection!  God doesn’t live on our time line; He has His own, and it often runs counter to our current culture. He is not in a hurry!

TRUSTING IN GOD'S TIMING

I admit, there are days when I think, it’s been over a year and still I’m just ‘here’.  I’m not crying everyday, and that’s a plus; I am able to finally write again; and my heart is healing, of that I’m certain.  But I’ve asked God again and again, “What am I supposed to be doing?  or Where do I belong?”  Finally came the moment when I said,  ‘Okay, God I don’t know what you’re doing or how you’re going to do it, but I thank you in advance!”  And even after saying that, I wonder how long ‘it’ will take until I know how everything is going to turn out!  Things just work so slowly!

LEARNING

I think I’m learning that God doesn’t move fast—or at our speed because it’s not about ‘settling, being in control, or even about accomplishment’ . — It’s about transforming me into the person he wants me to be, for what ever service he wants me to offer!  Preparation is a process; not a waste of time.  Even Jesus waited thirty years before he fulfilled his calling….to the cross!  Why should I/we be any different?  I heard it said once, ‘God moves at the speed of wisdom, not urgency.’  

Waiting stretches faith (and ultimately deepens it), creates dependence (removes the ‘I can do it myself’ syndrome), exposes impatience (I’m there sometimes), and develops active trust (I’m trying real hard to be here!)

My greatest fear, I think, is missing God’s timing!  God’s plan for growth and development feels slow, and sometimes inconsistent.  But he wants my surrender, not my grumblings!  His plan for my life is not an accident; it’s something he’s planned since the beginning of time.  He knows more about me than I know about myself.  It’s not even about me, it’s about Him!  

HAVING FAITHFUL AND TRUST

It’s about being faithful and trusting that God knows the beginning from the end.  He’s the Alpha and the Omega, and He has a plan for his Kingdom.  He knows exactly what He wants from me and it’s up to me to allow that molding, maturing and growth to be done in his Sovereign will, and in his Kingdom time. It’s in this place ‘God will do something new’ and I will be ready!

Photo Credit: Preparing For God's Service 

Photo Credit: Light at the end of a tunnel 

Photo Credit: God Is Good