A Quiet Place

For many of us the words from Psalm 46:10 can frequently echo in our thinking in the midst of our busyness, our priorities, and/or our struggles. Be still, and know that I am God! A knowledge of our God. Not just a head knowledge, but a knowledge that saturates our hearts and meets us wherever life has us, and has an unquestionable, life impacting, alive and personal knowledge that our God is real, and He does the real and personal, for me, and for those I care about. Be still, and know that I am God! But, how do I do that??? Thinking about it, contemplating the possibility – both happen, but the “being still”is still just a foggy idea. Like most other things that need adjustment, we must have a want-to, but we must also be intentional, and actively pursue it. My friend does that. Her want-to is strong. Life has too many complexities, too many challenges, and she very much knows she is unable in her own strength and ability to even steady them enough to find the needed resolution. But she knows she is the daughter of the eternal, loving, enabling God, and HE CAN. Her choice is to be intentional, and in utter dependence on Him, actively pursue the stillness. She delights in taking a snack and her heart, and finding that quiet time with Jesus on a solitary park bench in a solitary cove of nature. And she finds the stillness, and her heart listens, and responds. Jesus walked the dusty streets where the people He loved, lived, and sometimes met many of those same people on a hilltop, or even at the Jewish temple, or someone’s home. But Jesus also wanted time to be alone with His Father, in quietness and intimacy. And He intentionally would find those times, just as we are encouraged to do the same. “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.” (Mark 1:35) “Jesus went out to a mountain side to pray, and spent the night praying to God. When morning came, he called his disciples to him.” (Luke 6:12-13) “The news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.” (Luke 5:15-16) Our Pastor Joey frequently reminds us to find the stillness, and often gives some practical options for finding God’s answers in that quietness. I am blessed to have a quiet place within my home where I can be still, and grow in the knowledge of my God. But, I must still have a want-to, be intentional, and actively pursue that knowledge with a listening and responsive heart. And in your own busyness, priorities, or struggles, if stillness with God is only a foggy idea, or even a difficult one, all that God longs to give in the stillness, may evade us. Reach intentionally! Be still, and know that I am God! And know that He is real, and He will do the real and personal for you! – Bev

What's Love Got To Do With it

Do you remember the Tina Turner song, “What's Love Got to Do with It”? A line in the song asks, "Who needs a heart, when a heart can be broken?” When we are disconnected from the one we love, there is pain, a broken heart. Is it worth it to love? As I think about the pain of loss, there is a considerable price that comes when we dare to love. We are never guaranteed another day with those who encircle our world. That realization hit me hard on July 2nd when I lost my seventeen-year-old daughter. Never in all my life did I think she would die before me. Even though I knew it was a possibility, it was a thought I would quickly get rid of. It was painful just thinking about it. How do we live life without opening our hearts to love? What is in a relationship when we push our hearts and emotions aside to protect our hearts from pain? Life would be empty and lonely. It would make life not worth living. I think of Jesus when He decided to be born to take on the role of being a human being. He was God, so He must have known the repercussions of agape love. He knew people would turn from Him. He knew what was ahead of Him and His suffering on the cross. Yet, He decided we would be worth all of it. The beatings, the nail scarred hands, the pierced heart, and He still said, “Send Me.” My dear Mom, our hearts are broken, never to be whole here on this earth. But oh, how my life has become more precious to me walking through life with a broken heart. My capacity to love and hurt for others has grown and has changed the very beating of my heart. Life’s seasons have become much more meaningful, even in their bruised and battered condition. I hold onto each day. Those whom I love and with whom I come in contact, I try my hardest to show Christ’s love. I am not perfect, but I give it my best shot. Lord, You have given us the freedom to choose to love, or not. May we choose to love. – Michele

AnniversariesAnniversary.

Usually, the word brings an anticipation, a celebratory sense of something good that has continued or something perhaps you were honored for many years ago, and it deserves to be given recognition and even festivity.  My husband and I were approaching our fiftieth wedding anniversary, although we were far too young to be doing such a thing.  And we were anticipating a celebration, maybe a river cruise in the Northwest or up the Hudson in New York.  The word though is sometimes suffocated more in dread with nothing celebratory even being appropriate, and yet it is still an anniversary, one we cautiously, apprehensively, shrink from while at the same time knowing the disillusionment or heartache of its significance and knowing there is nothing within us that can ignore it or simply let it be another day.And sometimes such anniversaries come in a stark, foreboding parade.  It’s the birthday that precedes or follows the anniversary of the death of a child or a spouse.  And the memories come year after year after year.  It’s the tragedy that made national, even international, headlines, but you and your family, in the midst of that tragedy faced loss upon loss.  The calendar marks the holiday, but your own heart marks the anniversary that leaves your loved one absent.  Even decades after the death of our infant daughter just before Christmas, we take time first to remember the daughter God gave before we remember the Son He gave.  And for some, such timing gets very complicated.  The week of 9/11 brings stark reminders of the tragedy our family was personally impacted by in many ways, but it also brings memories of the death of a brother, a son, and a dad who died just a few days before 9/11.  And within that same week is a wedding anniversary of the mom and dad of the son who died, and their own marriage splintered while eight siblings struggled to survive childhood and teen years without a place called “home,” and then the dad who left his family, died, and that anniversary comes too in that same week of 9/11.  Anniversaries.  We can grow special memories through the good ones and celebrate with smiles and laughter.  But, what do we do with the ones that bring a return to anguish, sorrow, and pain?  I hear the pain in the voices of many moms who are drawing close to the anniversary of their child’s death.  And it’s not just the first anniversary, or the second, or the tenth, or ............  It’s a time to remember and it’s a time to ask God to pick us up, hold us close, and let us feel the warmth of His embrace, let us ask our questions, and let us share the feelings that swell a mother’s heart.  It’s a time, not to hide, but to seek out a friend.  It’s a time to rehearse God’s promises, over and over and over.  It’s a time to remember the good God has given even in our brokenness.  It’s a time to be intentional.  Do the things that are best for you to do – for some, it will be a quiet place; for others, it will be a place you once enjoyed together.  And know the turmoil of emotions will quiet and soften once again, for another season, and your God will stay with you, encourage you, and grow within you a place of refuge you can share with still others.  I waited patiently for the Lord to help me, and he turned to me and heard my cry.  He lifted me out of the pit of despair, out of the mud and the mire.  He set my feet on solid ground and steadied me as I walked along.  He will feed his flock like a shepherd.  He will carry the lambs in his arms, holding them close to his heart. He will gently lead the mother sheep with their young.  He has given me a new song to sing, a hymn of praise to our God.  Many will see what he has done and be amazed.  They will put their trust in the Lord.                                                                                                                Bev(Related Bible reading: Psalm 40:1-3; Isaiah 40:11; Isaiah 30:18-21)