Weakness

Sometimes the very thing that propels us forward is the same thing that keeps us from reaching our full potential.

Maybe it's an independent streak, or a tendency toward perfectionism, or that we are great listeners but we don't speak up when we should.

Do you sometimes find that your strength can also be your weakness?

Perhaps it is time to trade in your weakness for his strength.

"Each time he said, 'My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.' So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me."
-2 Corinthians 12:9

Sick

Sometimes she comes on too strong. And suddenly all of her is all that's left in a room filled with people.

She feels alone.

But the tragedy is that she's not sitting in a bar at closing time. She is in a place filled with the people who should be reaching her the most.

"It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."
-Jesus (Mark 2:17)

Blessings

Eight years ago I came to a new place. It is not a place of comfort, but a place of blessings. It seems odd to me that in the midst of my greatest discomfort, whether in weariness or in thin places, my heart longs for blessings. But these blessings do not come in the form of a dollar or a day to myself. They come with a kiss on the cheek or a squeeze around my waist or a bedtime prayer. These blessings come from a place I first came to eight years ago. A place called motherhood.

"He will feed his flock like a shepherd. He will carry the lambs in his arms, holding them close to his heart. He will gently lead the mother sheep with their young."
-Isaiah 40:11

The Trader

She grew tired of walking the straight and narrow when she felt the straight and narrow had walked all over her. So she traded in the "right way" for her own right of way and has kept going in that direction ever since.

Could it be that we are headed down the same path? Perhaps it's time to stop and figure out where we stand.

"Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching."
-Hebrews 10:23-25

Glory

It was sewn into your subconscious. It was built into your brain. It was hard wired into your heart. It's the desire to do something great. But this desire was not first planted by your parents. Neither was it first sewn in by society. It was made by the one who made you. And his design was for your greatness to shine under his light for his name. But something dark called sin has twisted this design and traded the glory of God for the glory of you and me. We dressed it up and called it fame. But God calls it fallen. We adapted it by naming it ambition, but God calls it amiss.

Whose glory are you living for?

"... for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus."
-Romans 3:23,24

Winning

She feels inspired to lay it all on the table when she comes back to her senses. But coming back to her senses means coming back to reality after having been a million miles away. So she plays the honesty card after hiding it under her sleeve. She is now playing to win. And she discovers that the winner takes all.

Are you winning today or are you holding back?

"If you hold on to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
-Jesus (John 8:32)

Breathless

Sometimes it seems as though sanity is just an illusion I am chasing as I run around, breathless. But on the days when I am so busy I cannot catch my breath, you are always there to catch me. So instead of running head first into my crazy schedule, I run head first into the arms that can carry me through.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls."
-Jesus (Matthew 11:28-29)