His Beautiful Mess

I love this photo. It was taken on a road trip coming from the beautiful mountains in Canada in route back to my home in Montana where I lived at the time. It was a perfect day. Driving through the winding mountain roads, laughing with friends. These were little glimpses of heaven to me. If I could sum up a moment of pure joy, this would be it. I love days like that and the gift they are. But I find that it's days where I've despaired of life that I can sense the Lord drawing me into deeper places with Him. When Hosea 2:14 is my anthem of the Lord taking me into the wilderness to turn my heartbreak valley into acres of hope. He has shown me over the years that He is the fulfillment of all that is lacking in my life, "for where else could I go, He alone has the words of true life". (John 6:68) I remember the days when I sat out by a dumpster all alone to eat on my lunch break and then fast forward to the days I now have amazing coworkers who I get to call frie...

I'm in a season where I've lived a little life but still have a long journey ahead. I see people in my life farther down the road that I aspire to be like. I have questions like how have you stayed faithful to the call on your life for 40 years? How do you continue to fight for your spouse day after day, especially on days when you don't feel like it? How do you trust God when things are out of your control and the situation looks hopeless? It could seem like the answers to these questions should be quite complex but what I have been learning is that the answer is simple: abide in Jesus. What does abide mean?  : to endure without yield, to remain stable, fixed, to continue in a place and pay the price, to remain steadfast and faithful So how does one abide day after day? It's easy on days when the spotlight is on you, when the breakthrough comes, and when circumstances seem to go your way. But to abide means to remain steadfast through each and every day. On ...

"Therefore the guilt of Jacob will be atoned for, and this will be the full fruit of the removal of his sin: when he makes all the stones of the altars like chalkstones crushed to pieces, no Asherim or incense altars will remain standing...And in that day a great trumpet will be blown, and those who were lost in the land of Assyria and those who were driven out to the land of Egypt will come and worship the Lord on the holy mountain at Jerusalem." Isaiah 27:9, 13 Isaiah is writing to a people who's nation is divided. People are burning their children in sacrifice to their god believing they will find security and hope that way. They are giving their lives to pieces of wood believing they are holy. The nation is a mess. But in the midst of that, God promises to restore what is broken, what is hopeless, what seems lost. Doesn't sound too different from today, right? No, were not bowing down to pieces of wood or burning our children in search of security but divisi...

I was reflecting this past week and looking over blog posts and the devotional below is one I shared from a book I was reading years ago but a similar thing happened to me tonight so I thought I'd share. "Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! —Psalm 136:1 Joel and Lauren decided to move from Washington State back home to Michigan. Wanting to make one last special memory, they bought coffee from their favorite cafe and then stopped at their favorite bookstore. There they picked up two bumper stickers with a favorite motto of the town they were saying goodbye to: “It’s an Edmonds kind of day.” After 2 weeks and a 3,000-mile drive, they entered Michigan. Hungry and wanting to celebrate their arrival, they stopped and asked about where to find a restaurant. Although they had to backtrack a few miles, they found a quaint little cafe. Emma, their waitress, excited to learn they were from her home state of Washington, asked, “What city?” “Edmonds,” they replied. “That’s...

"I tell you the truth, unless you turn from your sins and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 18:3  Tonight I was sitting at the park reflecting and praying. When all of a sudden three kids (a boy about 5 and twin girls about 3) approached me and started telling me all about their day at the zoo, their Spiderman and kitty cat face paintings, and how they were from Tuscaloosa, Alabama here on vacation. My time of reflection quickly turned to chats about which teenage mutant ninja turtle was the best (Donatello of course!), how a person needs a parachute to skydive or else they will die, and how long geese necks are.  Why am I saying all this? Because these three little kids taught me a lot about Jesus today. They had no fear in approaching me and telling me all the things they love and about their awesome grandparents "nana" and "gaga" who had taken them on fun adventures today. They didn't care that th...

...but as servants of God...unknown yet well known 2 Corinthians 6:4-10 excerpt I often wonder what life must have been like for the apostle Paul. He endured countless obstacles and consistent persecution but I find that as I read about his life he counted the cost and had an unexplainable joy deep in the fabric of his heart and nothing could take that away. How is that he could live in such miserable physical conditions and battle loneliness, not just being alone but being misunderstood and unknown by men. The only answer is Jesus. Jesus was his example because that is the life Jesus lived on earth and called His followers to.  Recently, I've found myself in a place of feeling unknown to those around me. I've been many places overseas and all around America. I've lived in third world nations and seen extreme poverty and I've lived in America with extreme material riches. Why is that when I lived in places of material poverty, I found more joy and a closeness ...