Month: January 2020

Shining the Light

Posted on by Wendy
“The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.” John 1:5

A few Sundays ago at church, for our praise song, we sang, “God of Wonders,” by Third Day. I really love that song. Phrases like, “the universe declares your majesty,” really resonate with this outdoorsy girl. When further into the song, it says, “Early in the morning I will celebrate the light and as I stumble in the darkness, I will call your name by night,” well, who hasn’t been on both ends of that spectrum?

You don’t have to live on planet earth very long to realize that we all walk in seasons of light as well as darkness. No one walks in only one or the other.

As the song was going and different members of the congregation had their hands raised in praise, a young child of maybe three or four, made her way up to the stage. She wasn’t a regular member. She was visiting with her grandfather, but she boldly went to the stage and raised her hands up for one of the singers to pick her up.

She obliged her and hugged her tightly and smiled and continued to sing. There was a collective, “awwww” that came from most of the congregation as the little girl remained content in the singer’s arms until the end of the song.

I thought about that moment long after the church service ended. I thought about the lyrics of that song that point to our holy majestic God. I thought about the music that drew a child closer to the musicians singing His praises. I’ve often thought that young children are possibly the closest people to Jesus’ heart because they love, trust and believe without fear. They don’t fear rejection. They don’t fear ridicule. They don’t doubt. When they sing, “Jesus Loves Me,” they believe it. Period. They don’t see a need to add a, “but” or “except for,” on the end. “The Bible tells me so,” is good enough for them.

But, besides being inspired by the little girl, I was also inspired by our trio of singers. What about their song drew her to them? As people of faith, perhaps we should ask ourselves what we are doing to draw others to Jesus? Do we act a certain way? Do we talk a certain way? Are we kind? Compassionate? Forgiving? How do we treat our spouses or our kids? How do we treat the waitress at the restaurant or the cashier at the grocery store who might not treat us very kindly? How do we react to the guy who cuts us off in traffic?

Are we light bearers in this sometimes dark world?

It’s probably never a bad idea to take stock on how we are doing. The wonderful news is that because of grace, we get a brand new chance every morning. A little girl and a praise song reminded me. Perhaps you needed reminding too.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

Tending Gently to Old Injuries

Posted on by Wendy
It truly is amazing how far a little grace can go.

Back in high school, I decided I wanted to run track. All my friends ran track and they all had so many fun stories. They got to check out early on many spring afternoons and I wanted in on the fun. The problem was, I wasn’t a runner. I hated to run with a purple passion. I had been a gymnast for quite a few years and later, a cheerleader, but never a runner.

However, a friend convinced me that the long jump could be for me. It wasn’t running. It was jumping. I reasoned that years of doing vault in gymnastics, made me a prime candidate. About the third practice, I injured a hamstring, severely. It hurt to walk or move much at all and jumping was definitely out. After resting it a few days and it was no better, I sadly gave up on my track dreams and that was a good thing because I didn’t think that hamstring would ever stop hurting. But, eventually it did.

I rarely think about my long jump failure, until that hamstring starts aggravating me and it still does. From time to time, it aches, either from running, (who knew I would end up liking a little bit of running?) or most recently, from a new yoga program. In the past, I would just ignore it an push through it, but as I’ve gotten older, I’ve learned the importance of listening to my aches and pains. When something hurts, it’s best to give it some rest and care, because the older you get, the harder it is to heal.

As I was putting some heat on it the other day, I began to think about some of the aches and pains that come from simply living and I found myself thinking about the heart ones as well. Just like our bodies sometimes have to deal with old injuries, our hearts sometimes carry old hurts.

Even the ones that have healed, sometimes leave scars and can ache. Old childhood traumas like rejection and anger or broken hearts and broken relationships later in life, leave their mark on us. Sometimes for seemingly no reason, something happens that triggers a painful memory or emotion. When that happens, we have two options, just like we do with the physical injuries.

We can ignore it and power through, pushing it all down and hoping that it doesn’t manifest itself later through some hurtful words or actions towards others, who did nothing to deserve them, or we can choose a different way.

We can choose to acknowledge old hurts either just to ourselves, or in prayer, or even to a trusted friend and then we can let them go. Because sometimes just the acknowledgement of the trials and battles we have survived, is enough to strengthen any weak spot and get us back on our way and if we need further help with healing, God is always willing to provide. We only have to ask.

It’s truly amazing how far a little grace can go.

An aching hamstring reminded me. Sometimes I need reminding. Perhaps you needed reminding too.

Have an awesome day!
Wendy 🙂

The Gift of Boldly Sharing

Posted on by Wendy
What would happen if we all boldly shared our gifts and talents?

I work in the front office of an elementary school. While I see a lot of people everyday, the high point of my day always comes from one of the kiddos who happen to come in for one reason or another. Yesterday did not disappoint.

A little boy came in to get some ice for an injury and while he was waiting for his turn in the clinic, we started chatting. I told him I liked his sweatshirt. It had Roblox on it, a game my son used to love to play when he was growing up. He was more than happy to talk about Roblox and I remembered that I had a picture of a group art project that my son had done in his college class. His team had built a dinosaur out of potatoes. I shared it with my little friend and he was as expected, enchanted.

He immediately shared with me that he was working on building a robot based on a television show in one of his classes. He told me that his project was 3D and made out of paper. I told him that he needed to let me know when with it was done because I wanted to come and see it. He said he would.

I chuckled about our conversation after he was gone. I had no doubt he was building something super creative and I couldn’t wait to see it. But, he surprised me. Right after the dismissal bell rang, he came into the office with a drawing of his robot. He had the name of it on the top. He had been so excited about our talk that he couldn’t wait to show me.

I was so flattered. It truly made my day. I thanked him and sent him on his way and I carefully packed his drawing and took it home with me. Later that night, as I looked it over again, it occurred to me how brave young children are with their gifts and talents. They know what they like to do and they do it. They don’t second guess themselves a dozen times.

They draw, build, paint, color, write, run, flip, pray and everything in between, with wide open hearts. They don’t care about judgement or criticism. They live creatively because they were meant to live creatively and they are happy to share. I think we grown ups could learn a thing or two from our younger counterparts.

What would our hearts and souls look like if we all boldly and openly shared our God given gifts and talents? What would our communities look like? What would our world look like?

A young friend reminded me of the gift we give others when we share our gifts. We have the opportunity to make someone’s day and sometimes maybe even change someone’s life. Sometimes I need reminding. Perhaps you do too.

Have an awesome day!
Wendy 🙂

The Power of Prayer

Posted on by Wendy
Although we are just travelers here, we never walk alone.

Right after Thanksgiving, my computer crashed. I mean crashed as in dead and never coming back. One minute it was on the internet and the next it was dead. After several stern lectures from my little brother about not keeping my hard drive backed up, he was able to salvage most of my files. I reluctantly ordered a new one on a Black Friday deal which didn’t arrive until the first week of January.

Meanwhile, on Black Friday, our family dog got really sick. She’s elderly, but still has a ton of spunk and we all adore her. It was touch and go for about a week and we weren’t sure if she would make it. It was kind of a surreal week for me. Everyone around me was talking about their Thanksgiving break and their Christmas plans and all I could think about was our dog. My hubby and I have become Empty Nesters this year and that little dog helps to fill a void. It turned out to be pancreatitis and she finally got better. We were so very thankful.

Things were looking up and my two college kids arrived safely home for Christmas. We were on the way to the lighting of our town Christmas tree when I got a call from a dear friend telling me she had breast cancer. I was shocked. We talked for a while. Her prognosis was good and her spirits were high, but it was hard to reconcile all of the celebration around that huge tree, all of the happiness, with that dark cloud of news.

The week before Christmas, a sweet friend at work learned that her young, very active, son, had a stroke and was asking for prayers. Once again, it seemed difficult to reconcile the joy of Christmas with the pain the people around me were experiencing. My heart went out to them as my prayers went up for them.

As God’s people, we know that the power of prayer can change situations as well as the heart of the one who prays. We know this because we have all been on both sides of prayer. We have prayed and been prayed for and we have all had our hearts broken.

Pain and joy live side by side on this side of eternity. As we travel through here, we will always be witnesses and recipients of both, but the good news is we never walk alone. A baby in a manger made sure of that. One day we will be in a place where there’s only joy.

Until then we should celebrate the good times and hold onto our faith in the bad times and find as many prayer warriors as we can to join us along the way. Those people are truly gifts.

This Christmas reminded me of the gift of our faith family. Perhaps you needed reminding too.

Happy New Year (a couple of weeks late!)
Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂