As a Child

Below was written in January 2011 - I have currently stepped out of the counseling field for a bit, but wrote this while in the thick of this weighty work - the stories & individuals behind those stories are still very close to my heart, as the experience changed my life & showed me gospel love, community, and God in a whole new light.  Similar thoughts have been on my mind lately...if I can catch any of the millions of thoughts that overflow my brain these days, you will see more on this again!

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"Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me." – Mark 9:37

I work with individuals, mostly women, who have experienced extreme trauma.  The stories I hear are the worst of the worst; I could not imagine it possible to hear stories that are more horrible and evil than the stories of the evil these women have experienced.  I have become so aware of the evil in this world, but with that, very aware of God’s power over evil, which has been powerful for my own perception of and relationship to the God who saves, grows, and perfects me through Christ Jesus’ sufferings on my account and defeat of death through the resurrection.

It is only through Him that I am able to do the work that I do, and because of Him, I am not overly preoccupied/overwhelmed by clients’ stories, but there are moments when their stories come to mind…usually when I am at church.  This happened a couple weeks ago.  I was sitting in church and suddenly, clients’ stories of trauma began going through my mind.  I had visions of each one, and I began to feel sadness as I watched the abuse endured by young, innocent children play out in my mind.  Then suddenly, right in that very moment, I had a strong desire to hold and spend time with a baby.  And to my surprise and appreciation, after church, a young mother caught my eye and offered for me to hold her baby!

I got some wonderful time with her sweet precious baby girl.  We walked around the church, stole away to the nursery, we exchanged lovely smiles and laughed together, we danced, and we enjoyed one another’s company.  After our sweet time together, this sweet baby girl decided to just lay her head down and curl up on my shoulder and fell right asleep!  I treasured each moment as I held her close in my arms and she slept peacefully.  I felt so loved by God, knowing I had desired this time and felt He had given it to me.

The following day, everything came full circle, as this moment was clearly being turned into more than just a blessing, but also a teaching moment.  As I continued reading in a book I had been reading, I came across texts like, “humility is also like a child at rest in his father’s arms (John Piper),” humility is like a child, not childlike as though it is sweet and easy, but childlike that is powerless and absolutely dependent (Piper – my paraphrase), and “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me (Mark 9:37)” 

And these texts were so sweet to me knowing that, immediately, as I felt sadness and in touch with some of the horror and evil in the world, I desired to be close to a baby…to receive Jesus and the Father (Mark 9:37) and to experience the humility, powerlessness, and dependency of a child asleep in my arms.  And to feel and be reminded of the comfort, joy, and stretching pain in the smallness of curling up in my Father’s arms and resting.  Oh how it feels to be painfully small while resting in the great arms of a powerful and absolutely trustworthy Father!

Snapshots: "We don't need better salesmen. We need better messengers."

Been reading some really good stuff lately...decided to share some of my favorites on here. The quote below is from Steve Mizel's blog - I clipped my favorite parts, but do yourself a favor & read the whole thing on his site!
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"The gospel is an incredible message of what God did for us in Jesus' death and resurrection. And it is insanely beautiful. He took my shame, my sin, and my place in judgement so that I could stand with him in the fullness of his blessing. He was covered with my shame so that I could be covered with his glory. He was crushed as my substitute in judgment so that I could stand as his brother in blessing.

The gospel is simply and profoundly a message of what God has done to gain our victory - a victory we could never win for ourselves. It is the good news delivered to us so that we might believe and be saved immediately and absolutely from the penalty, progressively from the power, and ultimately from the presence of our sin. The gospel is a message of good news to be believed about God's commitment to us. It is not a request for commitment from us.

The gospel says, Stop trusting your ability to work up to God and take hold of God, and instead start trusting in what God has done to take hold of you.
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Scripture is clear: we are saved by faith in the person and work of Jesus. Our goal as those who share the good news of Jesus should not be to get people to do something with the truth - it should be to persuade them to believe the truth. And just because we can get someone to want heaven or forgiveness or a better life doesn't mean we have persuaded them to trust completely in the person and work of Jesus.

We don't need better salesmen. We need better messengers. We have been entrusted the greatest message ever given to mankind, and it carries it's own power." - Steve Mizel, Trailhead Church

Snapshots: Power of Gospel for TODAY

“I think one of the most powerful apologetics of the gospel is when a group of people love one another, live in unity together in the midst of a broken, dark, depraved world and they don’t think they have to remove themselves from the world to be sanctified because they believe the gospel is powerful enough to sanctify them in the middle of a broken world.” - Jeff Vanderstelt

Snapshots: Incomparable

"So if it seems that there are going to be some temporary losses when you run this race with Jesus, you are right. That is why Jesus said to count the cost (Luke 14:25-33) before you sign on. But the marathon of the Christian life is not mainly loss. It is mainly gain. "For the joy that was set before him he endured the cross." It is only a matter of timing. If you see things with the eyes of God, there is a vapor's breath of loss and pain, and then everlasting joy (2 Corinthians 4:17)....the sufferings of this present age are not worth comparing to the glory that will be revealed to the children of God (Romans 8:18). So let us lay aside every encumbrance, and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with Jesus." - Piper

Snapshots: Hebrews 12:1-2

Hebrews 12:1 Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance, and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,

"I remember the effect this verse had on me as a boy when I heard someone explain that we must lay aside not only entangling sins, but "every encumbrance." That is, every weight or obstacle. Things that in themselves may not be sins. This was revolutionary. What it did (and I hope it does the same for you) was show me that the fight of faith - the race of the Christian life - is not fought well or run well by asking, "what's wrong with this or that?" but by asking, "is it in the way of greater faith and greater love and greater purity and greater courage and greater humility and greater patience and greater self-control? Not - Is it a sin? But: Does it help me run! Is it in the way?"..."

But when you look at your life through this lens, remember, "...verse 2 says, "Look to Jesus the author and perfecter of your faith." Don't look to your own resources and say, "I've tried before. It won't work." Fix your eyes on him. The battle is a battle of faith: will you believe that the things he promises are better than the bad habits that you use to cover your sadness? But more than that, Jesus doesn't just respond to faith with his help. He works to author faith and perfect faith. He works to begin it and he works to complete it. Faith lays hold on Jesus for help, because Jesus laid hold on the heart for faith. Hebrews 13:21 says that God works in us what is pleasing in his sight through Jesus. He is the author and the perfecter of our faith" - John Piper

My family history of faith -

"We look and we see examples of faith and perseverance under every imaginable circumstance: there's David who committed adultery and murder, and he finished; there's John the Baptist who had a weird personality, and he finished; there's John Mark the quitter, and he finished; and Mary the prostitute, and she finished; and William Carey, plodder, and he finished; and Jonathan Edwards who got kicked out of his church, and he finished; and Job who suffered so much, and he finished; and Stephen who was hated and stoned, and he finished; and Mary Slessor and Amy Carmichael and St. Paul who served as single people all their lives, and they finished; and there's Wyman and Jerry and Rollin, and they all finished. Well, by the power and faith that got them through I'm going to finish too!" - John Piper