This place is about honesty. It is about truth. It is about vulnerability. Sometimes, the painful insides just show.
I had the opportunity to attend a beautiful women’s retreat. The focus, the theme was Deeper Still. I was touched beyond measure. Privileged to spend time with people who I would normally not have. Old patterns die hard sometimes. But when we give Him our heart and will it opens up all kinds of adventures. Beautiful beautiful people. Unfathomable love of God poured out. Intimate conversations.
Sharing who we are can lend courage to another. Sharing breaks all the rules of silence. It’s a beautiful thing.
God is so good, so faithful and so perfect.
In a group lesson with some brave women this last week we talked about how knowledge is power. Once we know what we should do, then we become responsible to do it. It can’t just be lip service or a response to an emotional rush, however beautiful that can be. We become responsible to walk out what we learned, what we committed to and what going Deeper Still requires of us. But there is also plenty of grace to go around, so when your breath catches and you feel like this thing is sitting on your chest and it’s too big for you to move, He knows…and there is grace. But as a lovely woman said this weekend- we must rise. We commit to rising. We fall, we rise, we accept grace. And we move on.
I was given an earth shattering promise (and that is not an exaggeration or the result of an emotional high) It was a promise from my Papa God. An unthinkable promise. I stepped into the river up to my neck and He made a promise. And so now…I must act on what I’ve learned. I am acting (slowly), I am moving but oh my, it is hard.
Isn’t that how it goes sometimes. We find out were having a baby and it’s all pink balloons, trains, flowers, bassinets and streamers…but that’s not all there is. Then comes carrying around a watermelon in your stomach for 9 plus months. Then, then is the labor and delivery. Painful (doesn’t describe it)
But we do it! We do it because there is a prize, there is a promise. There is a reward…
It’s not so different than the places we are called to grow, to believe, to carry on, to take up the weapons, to follow. To be completely consumed by His love and utterly exposed in faith and trust.
I could share just the pretty parts right? We all like the pretty stuff remember balloons, bassinets, flowers and streamers?) And that’s all fantastic and exquisite but the other stuff is also fantastic and exquisite and unbelievable, in its own way. Because His grace is thick all over it. It’s undeniably Him. Beauty for ashes.
Admist the utter beauty of who God is and how He cares for us, is the hard, hard reckoning. The decision to be brave again. The decision to press in, to face something He calls you to face. It’s difficult. It’s scary. It’s old and yet new. It’s exciting and terrifying.
One thing I know..we can have Jesus in greater measure than we ever thought possible, so I will need to let go of my own need to understand, my own need to figure it out and with the abandon of a teetering toddler, I will need to jump.
We must use caution and follow His lead, but it is perfect and just enough and not too much. There is a rising and a victory in facing the hard thing while holding His hand.
I will jump, just not today ♡
Is He calling you to face something? Are you glued in place, not knowing what to do? Turn your face and He is right there , hand outstretched . Tears glistening in His eyes. Can you risk it?