She Stands

  Deuteronomy 14:2  For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. Out of the peoples on the face of the earth, the Lord has chosen you to be his treasured possession.  Treasured possession...…..  There have been too many times in my life where I  never saw myself as a treasured possession; someone of worth. I could be standing in a room full of people, huge smile on my face, laughter echoing with a boisterous sound of a sonic boom and yet I felt so alone. Out of place. Misplaced. I never really understood how a social butterfly such as myself could feel so detached from the world around me. But disjointed I was.  I was able to force myself into fitting in; merging with the crowd. And going with the flow. It was never just one crowd. I was a chameleon of sorts.  Changing my colors to blend with my surroundings. Always looking the part in words and action, but never understanding why I could never change the bellowing emotions on the inside forcibly statin...

Seeing Jesus in the form of a man has been a life challenge for me. I know he is real. I know he walked on earth as a living, breathing flesh. But growing up, I could never connect to the reality of the flesh side of him. I could not understand how someone I could not tangibly see could really love me.   Until now... In my 50ish years, my journey has led me straight to the face of my Jesus. And my own well of sorts.   Relating to the woman at the well has not only become a reflection of my own brokenness but a source of my healing.  Jesus never intended for what broke me to have a lifetime hold on me. I did that. I was my own judge. And juror.  Daily trials, life's mishaps, broken pieces, and my lack of understanding continuously led me to the one face that loves me in spite of myself.   My. Jesus. The weariness of my flesh at times will overtake my thoughts in the attempt to remove any presence of Him. But yet He remains.  He remains in my m...

Colossians 4:6 (NKJV)   Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one. Speech with grace, seasoned with salt ...………… Admitting out loud the numerous times I have tripped and tumbled over my words in my younger years can be compared to eating a tablespoon of vinegar. Many times, my words have been less than desirable. Rank-smelling, mouth puckering, and eye-watering pain would be a better description. They held no salt, only the salty tones of my utterance. My salty tones were not spoken to encourage, lift up, or be a positive influence. They were the back tones of my own emotional injuries that I had selflessly chosen to share like an arrow hitting a target.  Jesus tells us in Matthew 5:13. You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.  I did not want the salt the Lord...

Zechariah 9:12 Return to the stronghold, you prisoners of hope. Even today I declare that I will restore double to you.  Hope...... A feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen.  A feeling of trust.  Sounds good, doesn't it?  Believing for something. A change, an action that will restore all that has been lost, to trust for an outcome in a discouraging circumstance. And yet, the hope of the flesh shows no signs of change.  Holding on to hope can be wearisome. Hope itself is not, but holding on by the skin of our fingernails can be. At least for me it can be.  Can you relate?   Since the year 2020 when all that I knew to be the norm erupted with such a great intensity it was hope that held me in a cocoon of safety.  But it wasn't just any hope. It was and still is the hope of Jesus.  I dare not pretend to say I have been comfortable or even most knowledgeable in the midst of this great shifting. ...

                                                                Photo by Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash Matthew 25:7-10 7 “Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. 8 The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’ 9 “‘No,’ they replied, ‘there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’ 10 “But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut. And the door was shut.... That small sentence packs a multitude of profoundness. Not only does it stop me in my tracks, but it also brings a holy fear to my soul.  Holy fear is a fear that does not drive us away from the Lord but to the Lord. To f...

                                                                             I can remember as a young child picking dandelions to make a wish. Eyes tightly shut, face all smooshy and distorted to the point of my eyelids disappearing beneath my lashes; the wishes I had were life altering, or at least in my budding heart they were. One after the other, I would blow those dandelion seeds until the perching of my lips caused my face to start to tingle. The more I picked, the harder I would blow in the expectation of my hearts desires to birth right there in that moment.  I cannot remember the specifics of my many wishes. I can only recall the warm summers my tiny hands would pluck those dandelions in the hopes of one, if not all, of my wishes would show thems...