Missing Miracles

Then turning toward the woman he said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? Luke 7:44 (ESV)

Lately, things feel a little upside down don’t they? There are all these things we are adjusting to that people are calling the new normal. And, given the day the requirements are different. We are all just trying to make it work - figure out how to manage life with the new expectations. Layer on top of that the fact that in trying to respect different people’s comfort levels, it can get very distracting.

I was in this state. I was distracted with how to handle my new normal. I was distracted with handling various work situations and how to still connect for different ministries. I was so distracted that I was hyper focused on the problems I was having and not the miracles that Jesus is doing around me.

Sad. But true.

You see, in the midst of the mess, Jesus is still working. He is still speaking to hearts; he is still working things out; he is still comforting and convicting. He is still talking. PRAISE!

One of the things I miss when I hyper focus is people. During this time when everyone is figuring it out, God is putting people in my path. People to talk to. People to help. People to pray with. I think maybe I am missing the miracles in these moments.

Maybe he is saying to me, like he said to Simon "Elaine, do you see this woman?” Or maybe “Elaine, the man on the other end of the phone, do you hear his heart? Are you listening to him truly or are you missing it because you are looking at the wrong things?”

That’s what happened to Simon. He completely missed what was happening inside her heart because he was only looking at what he saw on the outside. But Jesus didn’t. Jesus never does. He always sees the heart.

I want to be like Jesus. I want the circumstances that swirl around my life to melt into the background so I see the hearts he puts in my life. I want to live his heart no matter what is happening in the mess.

Dear Jesus, I cannot do this alone…..only with the help of the Holy Spirit and daily surrender will I be changed. Please help me. Make a miracle in me. Amen

Heartwork

This is the message you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another. 1 John 3:11 (NLT)

Many, many years ago there was a woman in my life that drove me crazy. We didn’t get along but we were sharing life together because we were family. It felt like everything I did or wanted to do, she blocked. If she wanted to plan an event and I explained why we couldn’t make it on that certain date, she’d plan it anyway and insist we show up. Super frustrating.

My solution during this time was to distance myself. I wish I could say I did that because I was being thoughtful and kind. Nope. I did it because I was mad and digging in.

A little time went by without much contact and one day, we decided to go visit. It was clear that something was wrong with her health. After some doctor visits, we discovered she was very ill and the prognosis wasn’t good.

During the following months, we planned things to help lift her spirits. We showed up a lot to help her and went places so she could see the people she loved. As her health weakened, she needed more help. She needed help with bathing and doing her hair....things like that. She had only sons and did not want their help for her personal care. I volunteered.

I went over and helped her bathe. I washed and blow-dried her hair (which is pretty funny because I can barely blow dry my own.) During this time, we got to know each other better and all the anger, stubbornness and conflict we had in years past melted away.

She passed away a few months later. Someone told me at her funeral that she said she wish she had gotten to know me better before she got sick.

I remember that thought being so jarring to me when I heard it. And it made me incredibly sad. How much time had we wasted being stubborn and set in our ways? How much love could we have shared if we would just look beyond ourselves?

That thought still makes me cry. It profoundly affected me. To this day, I am so sad for moments lost where we can love each other and we don’t. Do I still get mad at people? Yep. Do I still want to write them off and disappear? Yep.

But I don’t. When I feel the inclination to separate myself and build a wall, I pray. I pray and pray and pray until God breaks down the walls I build and gets through to my reluctant heart with his heart.

You see, I Am not capable of loving selflessly on my own (I’m talking about real love not just faking it.) It takes the power of the Holy Spirit in my life changing me to be more like Jesus.

I can tell you this. Every single time I’ve prayed to love like Jesus, it’s been worth it. I’ve experienced moments of incredible love and joy that I would not have experienced had I stayed within my walled off heart. Let’s love one another. It really is worth it.

Beautiful As A Biology Book

“But the Lord said to Samuel, “Don’t judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”” ‭‭1 Samuel ‭16:7‬ (‭NLT)‬‬

Recently, I had a surgery to have a part of my body removed that was causing problems because it was not functioning properly. After the surgery, the surgeon came out and told my husband that it was a good thing we removed the part because it was in bad shape. Then he said “The rest of her insides are textbook perfect.”

I laugh at that because it seems funny to me to have my insides compared to a biology book. But it made me think. Here I was walking around with a diseased body part. It was causing me some problems but only the people closest to me knew my struggles. From the outside, I looked just fine. From the outside, no one could see that I had this chaos going on. And really, I didn’t even know how bad it was.

God told Samuel that we would do this. We look on the outward appearance of someone and decide how their life is going. We look at how they look, what they do and the responses that we see and make assumptions.

In reality, few of us advertise the things we struggle with. We want to put our best foot forward and look great! Sometimes, we know we are doing this. Sometimes, we don’t.

The Bible says we are all broken on the inside. We all sin. We all fool ourselves. That is until we compare ourselves to Jesus. When we spend some time looking at him, we realize how much we fall short. We know we need help. We know that our hearts are not as great as we pretend they are.

Now if you are OK looking great on the outside and being broken on the inside, stop reading. If you want to grow the heart that God is looking for, stop pretending. Spend some time with Jesus. Talk to him, read his Words and linger. The Holy Spirit will begin an unseen work on your heart. After a while, you will become Jesus perfect. And that is the only perfect that matters.

Deep Down Heart-Work

Create in me a clean heart, O God,
    and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from your presence,
    and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Psalm 51:10-11 (ESV)

I’m not sure how to describe what I am going to talk about today. But the scenario goes something like this.

At the end of the day or sometimes early the next morning as I’m praying, I talk to God about the day (or the day before) thanking him for the things in it. Sometimes during this prayer, God brings to mind something I said or did. And sometimes that makes me sad. It makes me sad because I did not glorify his name during those moments.

You see, I have a Peter personality. Things come out of my mouth that I may have said differently if I thought about it for half-a-second. Some days, I just note that I should have said that differently. But there are days when my heart is sad because my words revealed things deep down that I don’t always see. Maybe not to everyone else but God always understands. And, because he loves me, we talk about it.

It is in those days that I drop to my knees and let Jesus hone in on the root of the actions. During those times, I ask him to change the deep down things that want to put me first and not him. I tell him I’m sorry and I want it to be about him and not me. I ask him to create in me a clean heart and I pray that he will fill me with his Spirit.

David understood this. When he was confronted with his sin around Bathsheba, his heart broke. Instead of defending his decisions, he went to God and poured out his heart. I may be a Peter sometimes in my actions, but I want to be more like David in my heart. It’s in those surrendering moments that we will be changed.

Just For One

Two shepherds were getting ready to bed down for the night. As per their usual routine, they started counting the sheep.

Shepherd 1 (S1): 97, 98, 99….uh oh
Shepherd 2 (S2): What?
S1: One’s missing
S2: Are you kidding? I bet it’s that same sheep that is always exploring new fields. I’ll go look for it.
S1: Why?:That sheep causes trouble. Just let it go.
S2: No. I bet it wandered off not realizing it was getting too far from me. It is somewhere out there alone in the darkness. I am sure it is not even aware of the dangers all around. And besides, I love the little fella!
S1: How are you going to find it?
S2: I’m going to go out to the last place I saw it and call it. Maybe, when it hears my voice it will move closer to me so I can save it. And when I find it, I’m going to hug it and kiss it and carry it home.
Extrapolation from Luke 15:3-7

You know, Jesus did this. He didn’t hang on the cross for the masses. He hung on the cross for just one. That one was you. That one is me. He hung there in hopes that when we wandered off to the dark places and we are lost, we will remember. We will remember his voice, we will remember how much we are loved and we will move closer to him. To Jesus, each one is important. Each one is dearly loved.

Stop Everything!

Jesus realized at once that healing power had gone out from him, so he turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my robe?” Mark 5:30 (NLT)

Jesus was surrounded by throngs of people. The definition of a throng is a large, densely packed crowd of people. They were everywhere. You probably couldn’t move much and if the crowd moved, I bet you would move with them by default.

One of the people in the crowd was Jairus. He was a leader at the local synagogue so probably pretty important. He came and pleaded with Jesus for help. He could. He was important. I guess he felt comfortable going to Jesus and asking. Jesus started to walk with him and the crowd, of course, was following.

There was a woman in the crowd that wasn’t supposed to be there though. She had been bleeding for twelve years. In the Jewish culture, she was unclean. Unclean meant she shouldn’t be around anyone. Ever. She was basically quarantined from society.

She had tried everything to get better. Spent all her money. Tried many doctors. Nothing was working and I guess after being alone for twelve years….maybe she was just done. So, she snuck into the crowd and made her way to the only hope she had left. She touched his robe and could feel her body heal.

Jesus, being Jesus, said “Who touched my robe?” I love that line because there were probably a ton of people touching his robe but this was obviously different. And he stopped what he was doing to pay attention. This woman was so desperately seeking what he had to offer and Jesus noticed. He stopped in the middle of this throng and took notice of a woman who had nothing, not even social connections, because she was looking to him for help.

Jesus, was willing to stop what he was doing to get into her messiness. He put aside the important guy standing next to him. He put aside his task list (going to heal Jairus’ daughter). He focused on this one, inconsequential, needing to be healed woman.

He did it for her. He does it for you. Will you do it for others?

A Minute In It - Where Is Everybody?

A minute in Gods' word will change your life.  Read the passage below and answer the questions at the bottom of the post.

11 As Jesus continued on toward Jerusalem, he reached the border between Galilee and Samaria. 12 As he entered a village there, ten men with leprosy stood at a distance, 13 crying out, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”

14 He looked at them and said, “Go show yourselves to the priests.”And as they went, they were cleansed of their leprosy.

15 One of them, when he saw that he was healed, came back to Jesus, shouting, “Praise God!” 16 He fell to the ground at Jesus’ feet, thanking him for what he had done. This man was a Samaritan.

17 Jesus asked, “Didn’t I heal ten men? Where are the other nine? 18 Has no one returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?” 19 And Jesus said to the man, “Stand up and go. Your faith has healed you.” Luke 17:11-17 (NLT)

Why did the the 10 lepers cry out to Jesus?
What did they want from him?
What did they have to do before Jesus healed them?
How many returned to thank him and praise him?
Why didn’t they all come back to thank him?
When you ask Jesus for something, do you follow his instructions?
What do you really want from Jesus?
When was the last time you thanked him for hearing and answering your prayers?