Category: Trusting God

Sometimes life seems upside-down. When we draw closer to God, we begin to learn and trust that He has a plan for us and we can let go of many of life’s anxieties knowing that He has our best interest at heart.

Seasonal Decisions

Posted on by Wendy
Sometimes we have to participate in removing the dead things to reveal the beauty that lies underneath.

I woke up on Sunday morning with a headache and a sore throat. My ears were popping. My head and nose were completely stopped up. I was miserable and I knew why.

There’s a very specific time of year for me, when my seasonal allergies are at their worst. I can pin-point it down to a couple of weeks. I can use antihistamines, decongestants and nose sprays, yet it happens anyway. I sometimes even lose my voice.

You would think that I would come to dread this time of year. You would think that I would follow recommendations and stay indoors. You would be wrong.

Nope, on Saturday, I was outside with my hubby raking leaves and deciding what we should plant in front of the house. I simply can’t help myself this time of year. The temperatures are warming up and the earth has burst into life after its winter slumber.

While I could leave my hubby to rake all by himself, I want to be a part of it. There’s something almost spiritual about removing piles of dead leaves and discovering new green growth underneath. Those leaves had a purpose at one time and then they turned brilliant colors, but their season has passed and they need to be removed from the fertile ground that they cover.

So, every year I subject myself to the misery because I know the change that is coming. I know this because it happens every year. It’s part of life here on planet earth. it’s part of the seasons. If I don’t do some work now, I will miss out on the growth and beauty that is coming.

Jesus often used the environment when talking to the crowds. They were farmers, and fisherman, and tradesmen. They were people who worked with their hands and so His message connected with them.

God told Noah after the flood, “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.” Genesis 8:22

Sometimes misery is part of change. Sometimes we become emotionally or spiritually uncomfortable before something brand new and beautiful happens. This is God at work in our story. It builds trust. It builds faith.

Every year during the spring, in mid-March, I have the choice to be a part of the change or to play it safe and stay indoors. While there are some days of discomfort that come from the decision to participate, they will pass. The pay offs are well worth it. My work is always rewarded.

Some seasonal allergies reminded me that change and beauty are on the way. Perhaps you needed reminding too.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

Road Trip Reflections

Posted on by Wendy
We won’t really reach the top until God calls us home.

Last Sunday, my hubby and I traveled to south Georgia to see my daughter get an award. It just so happened that we had a college visit the day before, for my son, which was north of Atlanta. Needless to say, we spent lots of time in the car last weekend.

On the trip south, I commented to my hubby, who used to cycle a lot, how it seemed like the rolling hills went on forever and how difficult that must be to do on a bicycle. He told me the hills themselves weren’t all that difficult, but it was the fact that they went on and on that was the problem. He said at some point you would ask yourself if they would ever end.

He said it was a lot like hiking in the mountains. When you hike a mountain, the path is never straight to the top. You hike through switchbacks, which are like giant zigzags. You get all the way to the end and then move up a level and walk all the way to that end.

He said that he could see the mountain top from the distance as he hiked the switchbacks, but when he finally reached the top, he would find it was a false top and the true mountain top was even further up.

I thought about our conversation on our very long ride and two things popped into my mind. I’ve hiked a little myself and switchbacks can be maddening, but inevitably, they are part of the journey. There’s beauty in them if we care to look, like flowers we might have missed along the way.

The secret of a good hike is to enjoy the scenery and not race to the top. The switchbacks are part of the journey.

The second thing that occurred to me is that on this side of Eternity, all of the mountains will be false tops. We will never be completely satisfied in the journey. We will always be drawn to something higher because God is always drawing us to Him.

The hills and switchbacks will eventually end when God calls us home. Until then, we have to remember to rest when we need to, but to enjoy the journey. Yes, it can sometimes be filled with frustration and pain, but it’s filled with wonder and beauty too, that we can miss if we try to race.

A car ride reminded me to appreciate what’s in front of me. Perhaps you needed reminding too.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

Spring Inspiration

Posted on by Wendy
Hold tightly to your faith. Spring is coming.

As my hubby and I were driving home from church on Sunday, I commented on how beautiful the blooming trees were. It was as if overnight, the sleeping earth sprang to life.

It’s the very last day of February as I write this and it’s been a long cold winter. I mean seriously cold. We’ve had temperatures in the teens and for Georgia, that’s cold.

Most of the trees still look like skeletons around here, still in their winter dormancy and completely bare. If you would have told me a couple of weeks ago, spring was about to appear, I would have argued with you. It’s been so cold and our little state groundhog, famous for his correct predictions, predicted another six weeks of winter.

Yet, the daffodils, yellow bells, tulip trees and Bradford Pear trees are telling a different story.

In some spots, you really have to look for the signs of life. A single small flower will pop up or just a few buds have appeared. In other spots, everything seems to be blooming and there’s no way to miss it. But, it all seemed to have happened almost overnight.

Of course that wasn’t the case. The earth has been at work all along. The soil, the rain, the sun and the plantings, have all been hard at work beneath the surface, doing things that we can’t see. Spring doesn’t actually come overnight.

This season is always such a beautiful reminder to me that God is always at work whether we can see Him or not. There are times when the season of winter in our lives, seems to be endless. We can wonder if there will ever be warmth and beauty again.

But, if we are patient, if we keep praying, if we hold onto faith, then sometimes out of the blue, we will see a bud. Sometimes it’s actually a single bloom and sometimes it’s as if a switch has flipped and everything around us seems to spring to life at the same time.

However it happens, we have to hold on to our faith in the process. God is always at work, though often unseen and when we prayerfully wait on Him, the results are phenomenal just like spring time.

Some late February blooms reminded me. Perhaps you needed reminding too.

Have an awesome day!

Divine Timing

Posted on by Wendy
God’s timing is always perfect.

I often think about God’s timing. There are things that I pray for regularly that I sometimes wonder if God is even listening. Yet, time and time again, He shows me that He is.

For example, at the end of my daughter’s kindergarten year, we moved into a new house and a new school. I prayed for years that a family with a little girl would move in and that they would become besties. A the beginning of fourth grade, that prayer was answered. A little girl moved in down the street, and she and my daughter are now freshmen in college and still best of friends. My daughter loves her like a sister and I have come to love her as if she were my own child.

God’s timing may be different than ours, but it’s always perfect.

Last week, He showed His timing in such a brilliant way, it has stayed on my mind for days.

We had a child in our school with a birthday and her mama and grandfather came at lunch time to bring cupcakes for her class to celebrate her birthday. The grandfather rarely comes to the office but he is always very kind when he does. He speaks very little English so it’s always challenging to communicate with him.

When they were checking out, the grandfather picked up a flier that we had on the counter from a local church offering English as a second language classes, free of charge, at night. When the daughter asked me about it, I had very little information. Quite frankly, I didn’t even know they were up there.

I was reading over it with them, when an older lady, who serves as a mentor to one of our students, was checking out. She overheard what we were talking about and she told them that she attends that particular church and had all of the information that they needed. She answered all of their questions.

The grandfather seemed so excited when he left. I suspect he had a prayer of his own answered. The mentor, who was already doing a good deed by volunteering her time, got to do a second one that day.

I’ve often said that with God there are no coincidences. That mentor is only in our school one day a week. That child only has a birthday once a year. Those flyers hadn’t been in place for long and that grandfather is rarely in the office.

I was treated last week, to a front row seat production of God’s timing at work. All of the tiny puzzle pieces fell into place perfectly.

I sometimes need reminding. Perhaps you did too.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

Walking in Peace

Posted on by Wendy
“I have told you these things, that in me you might have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heat! I have overcome the world” John 16:33

Back in my early twenties, I was on a flight home. There were three of us flying that evening and we were all split up. I was sitting next to a complete stranger. Those of you who have ever met me before, know that I rarely meet a stranger. It usually doesn’t take me long at all to make friends with new people.

On this particular night, my seatmate was an air traffic controller. I’ve always found that to be a fascinating if not stressful, job. I had dozens of questions for him and he politely answered them.

When I say that we ran into some turbulence later that evening, I am not kidding. It was like riding a roller coaster. The aircraft bumped and dropped repeatedly. The flight attendants strapped themselves in. One of them even threw up. It was that bad.

I’ve never really loved to fly. The loss of control has always unnerved me a little. But, that night, my new air traffic controller friend, talked to me the entire flight. We talked about how most crashes are survivable. We talked about finding the exits if we needed them. We talked about how most people ignore the safety video which has important information on how to get off of a disabled airplane.

He was perfectly calm, which led me to be as well.

When we finally landed and I secured some ginger ale for my own queasy tummy, I met up with my group. The first thing my friend asked me in an exasperated tone, was how was I so calm? He pointed out that all of the passengers on board were silence in white knuckled fear while me and my new friend never stopped talking, acting like it was no big deal.

I laughed. He didn’t know who I was sitting with. I told him that I was with a seasoned air traffic controller and he wasn’t worried, then why should I be? It really never occurred to me to be frightened.

I’ve thought of that night many times over the years and what it taught me.

Sitting next to the air traffic controller in the storm, reminds me of walking with Jesus in the storm. There are things that happen to us and situations that we find ourselves in, that can absolutely terrify us like the rest of the passengers on that airplane that night. We can surrender to the fear and stress and hang on tightly with white knuckles, or we can lean into Jesus and know that He’s got this, whatever it is and we need not fear.

God is never surprised and when we really wrap our brains around that notion, we can always walk in peace. Perhaps you needed reminding today.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

Turning Back to God

Posted on by Wendy
If we truly want to stop the violence, we have to turn back to God.

Last week, there was another horrific school shooting in our country, that left seventeen people dead. Before the dust settled the blame game began. The gun control advocates got out their bull horns. The mental health reform folks got on their soap box. Everyone wanted to lay blame on someone for the tragedy.

When our sense of justice is shaken to the core, along with our sense of safety and that of right and wrong, we demand answers. Then, we demand change. We want assurance from those in charge of our safety and the safety of our children, that this type of thing will never happen again and especially not in our hometown.

As Americans, who live in a land of laws that are designed to protect us, we naturally look to the government to fix issues like this that seem to be spiraling out of control. We want to believe that the answers, along with the blame, lies with those who govern.

I think we are wrong.

While the government can offer some protection against these types of attacks, the more serious evil is at the source of the violence. The violence is merely a symptom of something much deeper and as we tend to do with everything in our society, we tend to gravitate towards treating symptoms, not the sickness.

Just walk into a pharmacy and look at all the treatments for stomach issues. There are hundreds and that’s not even counting prescriptions. Yet, if we would simply change our diets, we could fix the majority of our stomach aches.

Violence in our schools has been on the rise since God was escorted out. At every turn, there are groups who fight to keep prayer out, even if it’s simply cheerleaders praying before a football game.

We also used to be a people who feared God and we taught our children to do the same. Now, we teach our children to fear no one. They don’t fear their parents. they don’t fear their teachers. They don’t fear authority period. They don’t fear God and many have never even heard of heaven or hell, so they don’t fear death either.

The violence can be stopped, but it’s not by man. If you are reading this, you woke up this morning; God is not finished. The Bible says, “If my people who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14

Now, more than ever, we need to pray as a nation and we need to teach our children to pray, but we also need to teach them to respect the only authority who can drive out evil.

We need to turn back to God. He’s truly the only One who can end the violence.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

But God

Posted on by Wendy
The minute the rain stopped, the birds began to sing. They were unconcerned about the forecast.

As I checked the weather forecast for the weekend, I let out a tired sigh. There was a hundred percent chance of rain both Saturday and Sunday. We have been in a little pattern lately and have had rain for the past two Sundays in a row. When I say rain, I mean all day rain that doesn’t let up, the kind of rain that Forrest Gump talked about, sideways rain, pouring rain; you get the picture.

So, when I saw the forecast for two full days of it, I’ll have to admit, I was discouraged. It was my last couple of days dog sitting for my parents, so that meant I would be out walking them in it.

When I woke up Saturday morning, the skies were gray as expected, I trudged downstairs to let the little fur babies out. But, to my surprise, it was not raining. It was gray, foggy and wet, but there was no rain.

It was a happy surprise and as I walked them through the wet leaves, I noticed all of the birds singing. There were squirrels running around too. The animals were out doing their thing. They apparently, hadn’t seen the weather report. The air felt clean from all of the rain and the temperature was much warmer than it has been.

In fact, my little walk with the pups, encouraged me to put on my tennis shoes and go for a cardio walk. I marveled that the birds of all shapes and sizes serenaded me the entire time. Not a drop of rain fell on me and I gave a prayer of thanks that I had the courage to venture out.

If I had believed the forecast I would have stayed indoors. If I would have gone by my experiences from the past two weekends before, I would have stayed indoors. The only reason I would have even dreamed of going out in the weather, was because I was forced to.

A little voice in my head reminded me that, that is often the case. We often miss out on all kinds of opportunities because of fear, because we believe others when they tell us we can’t, because we judge our future plans by our past, because we believe the rain will never stop or we sit indoors in fear, idly waiting for the perfect weather.

But, God… when God calls us to do something; our past or what others think or say is irrelevant. The weather is too. There’s nothing impossible for Him, nothing too hard, nothing too big or too small.

He doesn’t seek the perfect, only the willing. A walk on a cloudy, wet day reminded me. Perhaps you needed reminding too.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

Storm Reactions

Posted on by Wendy
God does some of His beast work in bad weather.

It rained all day here on Sunday. As I sat in my church worship service the rain steadily came down. It never let up. While our sermon was not about rain or storms, the incessant rain reminded me that God does some of His best work in bad weather.

We all know the story of the disciples in the boat in the storm. Quite a few of them were actually fishermen and fishermen don’t panic very easily over weather.

I remember one time as a child, being out in the ocean with my family, with my daddy at the wheel and a storm came up in the Gulf of Mexico. There were whitecaps all around us and thunder loudly crashing. I remember worrying that I might bounce out of the boat, but Daddy was a Navy man. He wasn’t concerned at all. He lead us safely back to the dock.

So, when professional fishermen were terrified in a storm, it must have been bad. Yet, Jesus was asleep. He wasn’t the least bit worried. He knew they would not sink because He had them. But, when they called on Him, He had compassion for them and He calmed the storm with three words. “Quiet! Be still!” Mark 4:39

Over a thousand years later in 1735, John Wesley was on a ship bound for America as a missionary. A horrible storm struck. A group of Moravian missionaries were in the middle of a worship service, the main sail was split in half and ocean water poured over the decks of the ship. The other passengers were screaming and in full panic.

But, the Moravians kept singing and praising God, even their children. Their faith left such and impression on Wesley that he visited one of their services a couple of years later and found his heart, “strangely warmed.”

He took that spark and along with his brother Charles, started the Methodist church.

God does some of His best work in the storms. Not only does He use them to grow our faith and trust in Him, but if we allow Him, like the Moravians, He can use our faith reactions in the storms to plant seeds and grow faith in others.

As our pastor pointed out yesterday, God is never surprised. He knows where we are going and He holds us in His hands, so we have a choice in how we will react to the storms. We can choose to panic like the disciples did or to have faith like the Moravians. Our choice can have far-reaching repercussions.

A rainy Sunday reminded me. Perhaps you needed reminding too.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

Choosing Love Over Anxiety

Posted on by Wendy
“When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.” Psalm 56:3

A couple of days ago when one of my coworkers arrived at work, I asked her how her evening went. We always chitchat in the mornings and we are both typically positive people.

But, that morning was different. She had received some bad news about a family friend the night before and was concerned about his health. She had also learned that her mama had the flu, along with a few other pieces of bad news. She had been up most of the night and was frustrated.

I listened sympathetically. Who hasn’t been there?

But, then she showed me a picture of what she did when she couldn’t sleep. She made cinnamon rolls in the shape of hearts, for her daughters to have for breakfast when they awoke.

Her gesture really struck my own heart. Life was throwing punches at her left and right. She could have coped in dozens of different ways, the vast majority probably unhealthy. She could have taken something to sleep. She could have just watched television. She could have tossed and turned all night.

Yet, she chose to do something beautiful and creative in the midst of the chaos. As the storm swirled around her, she focused on her love for her children.

I thought about her gift most of the day. I thought of her decision to give to those who have been given to her rather than to singlemindedly focus and worry about what she had no control over. That takes a certain amount of faith.

The Bible tells us not to worry in many places. Christianity teaches us that God loves us and that He’s always in control. Worrying and anxiety has never solved anything. Yet, we worry. There are so many aspects of our lives that are completely out of our control and instead of recognizing that fact and releasing them to God, we worry.

It’s our attempt at gaining control and taming the chaos. It never works, but we have an enemy who would like for us to believe that it does.

There is another way.

We can choose to be thankful during the storm for all the blessings that we do have. We can live thankfully and share the love with those who are in our circle. We can hug those closest to us extra tightly. We can trust that God is in control.

We can live with wide open hearts. There will always be storms on this side of eternity. We can’t control them. We can control our reaction to them.

Some heart-shaped cinnamon rolls reminded me. Perhaps you needed reminding too.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

Inspirations from a Partial Thaw

Posted on by Wendy
We can choose to allow God to thaw and heal all of our hearts or only portions.

Our little town was blessed with two snow days last week. The first was exciting for most people. The snow came down throughout the early morning and when it stopped, it was play time. But, it wasn’t one of those stick around for days, snows for many of us.

In most spots, the sun melted the majority of it away by late afternoon. However, we are a rural town and we have lots of shady spots that are off of the beaten path. Those spots and roads, kept the snow wet and frozen and so when the temperatures dropped back into the low twenties, those spots froze solid making driving conditions very dangerous.

Those conditions bought us a second snow day even if there wasn’t much snow left.

Personally, I couldn’t have been happier about the extra day as I was buzzing around my house cleaning and straightening and doing little chores that I never seem to have the time to do these days, when the roof over the landing to my front door, caught my eye.

One side was completely melted, not a drop of snow or ice, remained, yet the other side was still mostly covered in snow. It was clear that the sun was shining directly on one side, but its warm, thawing rays were not reaching the other.

I had a hard time looking away because the two halves were so very different.

Now, over the past few years, God has taught me a lot from roofs, from helping to remove them and replace them on mission trips, to a tree falling on my roof in all the safest places during a hurricane, so I wanted to pay close attention to what He was trying to tell me.

The answer that kept coming was, that roof is like our hearts. We have different areas and parts of them. When we decide to surrender our hearts to Jesus, there’s always lots of heart work to do. Humans are flawed and broken and we inevitably hurt each other often, whether intentionally or not.

We sometimes carry those heart injuries long after they were incurred. We sometimes carry them for a lifetime. Most of us will allow healing for some of the injuries like the side of the roof where the sun was shining. But, often we will continue to cling to the deepest hurt, anger, shame or resentment, not allowing Jesus to shine His light on those parts. So, they stay frozen and prevent us from living, loving and trusting fully.

Yet, Jesus calls us to more. He calls us to trust Him, to hand over all of our hearts and let Him shine His light and love on all of the parts. He wants to heal us completely, so we can be totally free, not just mostly free.

A partially snow covered roof reminded me that when walking with Jesus, mostly is not enough. He wants to heal all of our hearts and for us to let go of the past so we can embrace the future with Him. Perhaps you needed reminding
too.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂