Five Minute Friday

It's Five Minute Friday over at Lisa Jo-Baker's and if you don't read her blog yet you need to check it out. Love her. So go check it out and link up your own five minute Friday. :)

Today's topic is to write for five minutes on Imagine...so here goes

Imagine…soft, grainy sand sliding between your toes…waves gently rolling onto the shoreline covering your feet and releasing the sand and the stress. With each wave the stress built up between your shoulders eases it's tight grip. The sun has dappled your beach chair and the perspiration from your Mai Tai is refreshing as it drips onto your hand.  To your left is a book waiting to be read and to your right endless quiet in the form of solitude. There is peace and regeneration in this moment of not doing in just being. Imagine…

Sea Glass Beach Cuba

I'll be back Monday with the third part of On Coming Home...Have a great weekend!

On Coming Home... Part 2

The groan has been present since Adam and Eve turned around and saw the angels standing guard at the entrance of Eden.  What they knew of home was gone and in its place was a shadow of what used to be and in their heart now a groan. 

Like Adam and Eve we were created with eternity in mind and our heart knows that (Ecc 3:11). So their struggle is our struggle and their groan is our groan. Can I Just tell you that this is not just some wimpy groan either? This is a groan that seeks to be filled (2 Cor. 5:1-8).  Our longing to be “at home” with Jesus is core deep and just because we can’t see it or don’t realize it doesn't mean it has no impact. So let me stop here and just tell you what God revealed to me recently about my own groaning. This spring I studied the book of Revelation through a study by Beth Moore.  Revelation is mysterious, amazing, life changing, and hope filled. I can’t say enough about studying this book of the Bible. It will transform how you view God and will give hope where you thought fear would come.  

It’s the last week of our study and we are digging into what the New Jerusalem will look like. We are talking about Home. Revelation 21:1-4 states, “Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,”^[a] for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. ² I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. ³ And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ⁴ ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’^[b] or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

Did you catch that? God’s dwelling place will be among us…and He will wipe away every tear.  I just want to stop and take that all in. Not only will there be no more crying, pain, or death in heaven…Our father, the maker of heaven and earth, will take His glorious precious hand and wipe our tear stained cheeks. Oh how tender is His love for us. Every broken heart brought on by every kind of gut wrenching trauma will be healed. We will finally be home with Him. The groan will be satisfied. 

It is in this moment in the middle of Bible study as I am reading these words that I am getting a glimpse of the heart of God.  Lord, I want this….this home.  And as I am speaking in my heart…the Holy Spirit reveals to me overwhelming truth. Your struggle, this wanting something more…this pushing hard to be something will not do what you want it to. You are pursuing significance in the hope that it will fill the ever present groan for home. You see I have been pushing. Pushing to do something, be something….  If I can do this counseling thing and support myself then I have made it. But in one moment stopped in time God revealed to me this simply isn't true. Is there anything wrong with pursuing my dream? No there’s not.  But I was hoping it would do something it simply can't do. It can’t satisfy my longing for home.  I could be the leading counselor in the country and it won't fill that void.

This was life changing truth for me. How many of us are walking around seeking to fill the void ourselves? How many are seeking home in the form of a relationship? How many are seeking home in the form of an addiction? How many are seeking home when they try with every fiber of their being to gain the approval of their parents? 

Loving Life at the pool yesterday

On Coming Home...Part One

When you hear the word home what comes to mind? For many the word home means family, refuge, love, comfort, peace.  We often think of home in reference to our childhood homes…the place where we grew up and the experiences we had there. We saw our parents as larger than life figures that knew everything and protected us from the boogie man and that mean kid in first grade. 

 Home was the only place we were truly safe. 

Family Christmas 2012

As we enter adulthood we desire to leave home in order to spread our wings …to learn to fly on our own.  We want to establish our identity, our purpose, our community. Yet, when the winds of freedom begin to batter at our fragile newly formed wings our first instinct is often to fly home. In the beginning it may work… our home is not much changed from what we remembered.  We can go home and sink into the safety of the nest.  However, as we get older and change so does our home. The house may have been sold, our rooms turned into something else, or those precious loved ones may have passed on.  We find that the home we long for has changed and we can’t get back to that place. There’s some truth in the adage once you leave home you can never truly go back. But just because we can’t get back home doesn’t mean the desire or the longing for home goes away. It sits there in the midst of our hearts groaning….

You see the thing is that this groan has been there all along. It was there from our beginning. When we cried our first breath the groan was already present we just didn’t realize it yet. The groan has been present since Adam and Eve turned around and saw the angels standing guard at the entrance of Eden.  What they knew of home was gone and in its place was a shadow of what used to be and in their heart there was now a groan. 

When Truth Sets You Free

My munchkins are watching cartoons in the early hours of this morning and I am trying to wake up with a good strong cup of coffee. Yet, things in my heart have been stirring for weeks...years really. So here I am sitting with the Lord and saying what now? You see...I had the chance to glimpse some amazing truth...truth that in an instance changed my whole perspective. The Lord is so cool like that. In our encounters with him he leaves us changed, blessed, hopeful.  He's calling me to walk a slightly different path. I will share more in-depth about how this came to be and where I think he's leading soon.

 In essence though it will be about being created for home. How we can use things, people, goals, etc...to mask a longing that can never be filled with the tangible. We were created with a desire for God but also a desire to be "at home" with Him. How often are we seeking to stuff, mask, or fill, our need to "be home"? How do we "find home" here on this side of eternity? I never really understood all the times in the Bible where it talks about this being our temporary home...I mean I got it on a head level yes this is not our home...but not on a heart level because let's face it there can be some really good stuff going on down here. So I am sitting in the now looking into this idea of being home and letting the truth go down deep...for when truth sets you free, you shall be free indeed.

Sea Glass Beach Cuba