It’s raining; it’s pouring.
The winds, they are roaring.
Mustang Sally is out for a ride –
Her “fun”, there’s no controlling!
I’m so thankful for umbrellas today as the effects of Hurricane Sally are beginning to be felt in our area.
And I’m praying for all those in the direct path of Sally to be sheltered under God’s great umbrella of protection!!
When waves are crashing all around,
When winds are whipping bold,
Lift up your eyes and you will see
A hand for you to hold.
When fear is knocking at your door,
When doubts have left you cold,
Take heart for there will always be
A hand for you to hold.
He’s always there to rescue you.
He’ll give you strength untold.
Just speak His name and you will find
A hand for you to hold.
Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!” Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him.”
Matthew 14:29b-31a
Have you ever heard someone say, “I’m praying for you”?
What a comfort these four words can bring! When we’re at the moment of breaking, when we’re facing the toughest decisions of our lives or when we’re waiting on those dreaded test results, knowing someone is lifting us up in prayer is one of the most encouraging feelings. And it may be the only thing that keeps us from giving up.
So as the world continues to throw curve balls our way, I hope you are praying for those around you. I hope you are lifting up your friends, family and even strangers, asking for God’s grace, provision, mercy, protection, healing and comfort.
And I hope you are saying those four powerful words, “I’m praying for you,” to those who need to hear it most. Better yet, say, “I’m praying WITH you!” Because just knowing someone is concerned enough to pray can lighten the heaviest of loads and lead the way to a much needed SMILE.
As my younger son was growing up, I had to find creative ways to deal with his, well, let’s just say, “antics.” Social media was my outlet and I would “vent” by posting daily updates on what my kid was up to. Most of the posts were about his behavior at school, for example:
Such was the theme throughout his entire elementary school years. <SIGH>
Other times, the posts were about my child’s unique perspective on the world around him:
I learned to truly enjoy how his little brain thought!
This kid always kept me on my toes. He challenged me to see the silver lining in every situation, to turn what could be worrisome mom moments into opportunities to enjoy my child’s rough edges and pointy corners and to laugh when everything was telling me to give up.
And many times, his crazy antics ended up teaching me much, much more:
Alex’ Summertime Antics:
Tonight at church, we learned that if Jesus can calm a terrible storm by saying three simple words, “Peace! Be still!”, He can surely calm the storms of our lives (help us through tough times). So, I asked the kids to tell me some tough things that they go through that God can help them with. The kids gave great answers – school, losing a friend, the death of loved ones, breaking an arm or leg, parents getting divorced.
Then, Alex raised his hand…
“When you drop your iPod on your bed and it bounces up and hits you in the eye!”
One of the other teachers looked at me and said, “That’s YOUR kid!”
Yes, he is my kid! And he had a very good point – whether he realized it or not.
There is absolutely nothing too small to take to God in prayer. If it matters to you, it matters to Him. He cares about everything that is going on in your life.
We tend to believe we don’t need to waste God’s time on the small stuff, like our child’s behavior at school or loosing our car keys or getting hit in the eye with a bouncing iPod. But it’s often the little things like these that weigh us down the most. We throw these small troubles over our shoulders and say, “I got this.” Then, when the next little thing comes along, we throw it over our shoulders, too. And we keep adding and adding and adding until all those little problems that we thought for sure we could handle become a huge burden that we can no longer bear.
We could save ourselves a whole lot of heart (and back) ache by just taking each little trouble to the Lord. You’re not going to offend God by bringing what you think is a tiny matter to Him in prayer. No, God will say “Peace! Be Still!” to any size storm – even a little rain shower. That’s how amazing our God is!
So, what are you waiting for? Take Alex’ advice about the small stuff and start unloading those shoulders of yours. Then, get ready to enjoy God’s peace!
“Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.”
1 Peter 5:7
Because these virtues are not second nature – they don’t come easy and they certainly aren’t all the rage.
Because these qualities can make us unpopular – they separate us from the crowd and they are often and easily misunderstood.
Because these characteristics are life-changing! – they make all the difference in our relationships with others, in our view of the world, in our acceptance of ourselves and in our internal and outer struggles for peace.
Because this is how God’s spitting image should act. This is how He intended us to be – loving with our lives, forgiving without record and entrusting it ALL to Him.
Lord,
Give us eyes that see the best in people;
Give us hearts that forgive the worst;
Give us souls that never lose faith in You.
Amen.
Cast off your burdens:
Hurl away your troubles;
Force out your worries;
Get rid of all your cares;
Abandon them into the hands of the Father –
No strings attached,
No fingers crossed,
No take backs,
No 50/50 split –
Let it all go.
Then,
Walk away;
Don’t look back;
Keep pushing forward;
Enjoy the peaceful rest while HE carries the load –
No strings attached,
No fingers crossed,
No give backs;
No 50/50 split –
He will take it all.
To some, it may be silly. To others, pointless.
To some, it’s naive positivity. To others, a resented point of view.
To me, it’s a necessity and the SMILES will continue.
They must continue…
Since the onset of this COVID-19 craziness, I’ve experienced a myriad of emotions.
I’ve gone from fear of an unknown virus ravaging the world and destroying all I hold dear to anger over the decisions made by others, decisions that affect my safety and the safety of my family.
I’ve moved from sadness over the death of people that I know, that I’ve worshipped with, that I’ve worked with, to relief over my own suspicious symptoms being deemed non-virus related.
I’ve worried about family and friends, praying for the safety of those who remain healthy and for the healing of those who are fighting for their lives in isolation.
I’ve been grateful that my job is considered essential, that I can make a paycheck, pay my bills, buy groceries, while simultaneously feeling guilty that I’m still working when so many are not and are struggling to make ends meet.
I’ve been anxious, stressed and overwhelmed as I’ve navigated these uncertain times with a husband who has been dealing with major health issues, non-virus issues, but problems that seem to have no remedy, problems that keep arising and causing him to worry, stress and be overwhelmed.
I’ve found solace in Scripture and listening to worship music throughout the day only to have that consolation disappear as the lights turn out at night and the prayers begin…
Why, God? How much more of this can we take? How long, Lord?
I am emotionally exhausted.
There are times I want to give in to it all – to the fear, the anxiety, the stress. There are times when I can barely fight back the tears, those same tears that flow so freely as I’m writing this post. There are times I feel helpless believing there’s nothing I can do to make things any different.
But maybe I can.
Maybe, I can hang on to my faith. Maybe, I can trust that no matter what happens, all will be well. Maybe, I can share that hope with others.
So, guess what? I’m going to keep grasping for reasons to SMILE. I’m going to keep thinking of ideas that will spread those SMILES to others because I need to. I need to focus on the light, on the hope. I need to focus on the Source of that hope.
If I don’t, well…
My sanity, my emotional health, my faith, my hope – there’s just too much at stake.
Though you can’t see an end to your struggle,
Though your heart stings from familiar hurt,
Though your hope has been crushed and your trust has been broken,
Pray anyway.
Though you fear nothing will ever change,
Though you worry your cries won’t be heard,
Though your faith has vanished and you’ve nothing on which to cling,
Pray anyway.
Though your world, so dear, has stopped turning,
Though you can’t fathom the reasons why,
Though you feel abandoned and your life is in pieces,
Pray anyway.
Prayer is more about Gods presence than it is about our problems.
It’s more about who we become while spending time with Him.
It’s about the spark that is reignited,
The faith that is rekindled,
The hope that is reborn.
The resolve that is strengthened,
The healing that takes place,
The rest that is given,
And the peace that floods our souls.
The power of prayer is the experiencing of the power of God,
Discovering that He is greater than our problems,
That our problems cannot change His promises,
That His grace is always sufficient,
That His love is never failing and
That we don’t have to do life alone.
So no matter your circumstances,
No matter your lack of faith,
Never stop praying.
Never stop seeking His Face.
Pray anyway.
Bad days. We all have them. Even me – the chick who’s always talking about happiness. And this past week has been filled with them. One, especially, was a doozy! It began badly and escalated into something even worse. By the time I made it home after work that day, all I wanted to do was vent to my husband and curl up in my bed. But one of my husband’s co-workers was at the house. Venting was out of the question. So I ended up in the kitchen with a new recipe in front of me and a determination to cook away my problems.
I’ve said this before: it is so very strange that I find solace in cooking since I have no idea what I’m doing! It could be that the challenge of learning (and conquering!) something new creates a distraction from the worries of life. Or the appeal may be the creativity involved – gathering all the separate ingredients and putting everything together to produce something wonderful in the end. No matter the reason, cooking has become my emotional outlet.
So with the weight of the day on my shoulders, I set out to cook a chicken, bacon and ranch casserole. I prepared the ingredients as instructed – cut up the chicken into cubes, cut up the broccoli, cooked and crumbled the bacon and mixed it all together with cream cheese, ranch dressing and shredded cheddar. Then I checked the last bit of instructions to see how long the casserole was to cook:
“Bake until hot about 35 minutes.”
Until hot? Wait. That seemed like very strange wording for cooking instructions. I scrolled back to the top of the recipe to see if I had missed something. And there it was – the very first ingredient on the list:
“1.5 lb. cooked chicken, cubed”
COOKED? Really?
I looked at my casserole dish filled with the gooey combination of raw cubes of chicken, ranch dressing, cream cheese and all the other fixings. I almost lost it. I had just spent over an hour thawing out the chicken (cause I never remember to take the meat out of the freezer), cutting the raw chicken into small chunks (which really grosses me out and almost causes me to never eat chicken again), thawing and cooking the bacon (cause I like crispy bacon) and figuring out if I could substitute ranch dressing for the mayo and spices the recipe called for (Why not just call for ranch dressing in a chicken, bacon and ranch casserole?). It was all I could do to hold back the tears.
This cooking therapy session was doing me no good at all!
My initial response was to throw the whole thing out and order a pizza. Actually, throwing it across the room was my first impulse but then I would’ve had to clean up the mess. I certainly didn’t want to do that! So I decided to fish out all the pieces of uncooked chicken and brown them in a skillet. (I may have been able to cook the casserole as it was but I didn’t want to take any chances with chicken.) After the chicken was cooked, I mixed up the casserole a second time and put it in the oven. The finished product was delicious.
We ate. The family was satisfied. My bad day still loomed.
It bothers me to stress over my bad days. I know that there are so many who have worse problems than I. But there are times when the bad seems to latch on and not let go. I went to bed troubled and praying.
The next morning I awoke with a song in my heart:
“Oh, my soul,
You are not alone.
There’s a place where fear has to face the God you know.
One more day, He will make a way.
Let Him show you how, you can lay this down
‘Cause you’re not alone.”¹
God is good, isn’t He? He is always with us, even on the bad days. He walks right beside us and He’ll even carry our burdens – if we let Him. He is big enough to handle every problem, every worry, every sorrow, every question, every fear, everything.
You see, God is pretty creative, too. And just like gathering all the ingredients of a recipe and combining them into something wonderfully delicious, He has no problem gathering all the pieces of our lives, the good days and bad, the triumphs and failures, the joys and sorrows, and fashioning these pieces into something wonderful. It may take some adjustments to the recipe – fishing out what is wrong, reworking it or even throwing it out altogether – but in the end, the results of God’s handiwork are always beyond compare.
Have you found yourself crying over uncooked chicken lately? Have you experienced any bad days? Maybe you’re experiencing a string of bad days. If you are, please remember, you don’t walk through these bad days alone. God is with you and He is waiting for you to hand Him your burdens. So, go ahead, hand ’em over and watch God’s creativity at work.
¹”Oh, My Soul” by Casting Crowns
A Couple of Stars and a Happy Face 