Category: Listening

In our world today, you rarely find a place where you can get something for nothing.

You have to pay some kind of price to get anything at all.

It may be money, it may be services, or it may be something else, but you have to give something in order to get something in return.

Often this is also true in our relationships, and it may be that we even do certain things in order to receive certain outcomes.

But there is one relationship that didn’t begin with us having to do something to get something.

God sent His Son, Jesus, to earth, not because we did anything to deserve it, but just because His love for His creation (us) was so great that He wanted to give us the opportunity to be saved.

And this incarnation, this Emmanuel, God with us, isn’t something that we could have gotten because of anything we did or could do.

It is simply a gift. And yet, it is a bigger gift than any other we could receive.

We don’t deserve redemption. We don’t deserve a God who would sacrifice His Son so we could have a relationship with God Himself.

But we get it anyway.

And I would say that is the best something for nothing ever.

I pray that you would receive this amazing Gift this Christmas. Spend time with your family and friends, but mostly, be grateful for this free gift of grace that you have been given.

Merry Christmas!

As things in my life are shifting around, one of the things that I have become very grateful for is the value of the friendship of others. This manifests itself in many ways. Sometimes that looks like someone who listens as I talk. Sometimes that looks like an encouraging word via text. Sometimes that looks like a card in the mail. Sometimes it looks like a conversation full of give and take where permission is given for authentic response on both sides.

I have been the recipient of all of this and more over the past weeks.

And today I hope that I am able to give that gift as I wait with my friends during their daughter’s brain surgery.

Because sometimes friendship looks like sitting in a waiting room and listening, laughing, crying, and supporting.

Run, Mary, Run!

Yesterday was the first Sunday of Advent, the first Sunday of the time of anticipation leading up to the celebration of the birth of Christ.

The birth of Christ that we celebrate as THE gift of Christmas. The reason for the season. The reason that we celebrate Advent and Christmas.

And this is a GREAT thing! I love Christmas! I love being reminded of the anticipation that the Jews felt for many years as they awaited the coming of the Messiah.

And as we celebrate Christmas and Advent one of the things that we celebrate is RELATIONSHIP with God through Christ sent to earth as God in human form.

What a gift that God has given to us, the ability to have a RELATIONSHIP with God without having to go through priests and animal sacrifice, but rather to come to Him through His own Son.

His Son that came to earth as an infant and grew up just like we did. His son that encountered temptation just like we do. His Son that was tempted in every way, just like we are, and yet remained sinless.

All so we can have RELATIONSHIP with God. Straight up. One on one. I can talk to Him without anyone else in between.

This is an enormous gift! The gift of RELATIONSHIP with God, with the creator of the universe, the creator of life.

And this RELATIONSHIP is the one that we use to guide us in our RELATIONSHIPS with all other people.

RELATIONSHIPS that are open, grace-filled, loving, accepting, and full of mercy.

What a gift we have been given – one that allows us to approach God with confidence and an open door, but also one that guides us as we build RELATIONSHIPS with those around us.

RELATIONSHIPS that allow us and those we love to be who we have been created to be, without excuse.

Every day I find myself being more and more thankful for those who see me as the woman I have been created to be, and who work to build RELATIONSHIP with me.

And I hope that I am as willing to see others as who God has created them to be and build RELATIONSHIPS with them along the way.

Proverbs 16:24 (NLT) says, “Kind words are like honey–sweet to the soul and healthy for the body.”

I have been the recipient of so many kind words lately: encouraging texts; moments of prayer; sweet words from friends, time in scripture reading God’s Words. And it is true that these kind words are sweet to the soul and healthy for the body. I would even say they are life-giving.

In a world where we are constantly bombarded with tearing one another down – whether for their beliefs, lifestyles, politics or just because we can – kind words are a commodity to which we must hold on tightly, and offer freely.

You see, I think there are two sides to this verse.

There is the obvious side, the one we read into the verse immediately, the one about us. The side that says kind words spoken to me are sweet to my soul and healthy for my body. In our individualistic society this is often how we read and hear sayings of this nature. We relate them to how they make us feel good. We want to receive kind words. We want to feel good.

But the other side of this verse, that I think is at least equally important, if not more so says kind words spoken to others are sweet to their soul and bring health to their bodies.

When Solomon spoke these proverbs, he was imparting wisdom that the Lord had given to him. As a King, his words had power, but I think he understood that power was about so much more than controlling and ruling people, but that his words had the power to bring hope and healing into the lives of others.

Our words have power, too. We can use them to build up or tear down. We can use them to encourage or discourage. We can use them in ways that make others lives sweet like honey, or in ways that leave a bitter taste behind. We can use them to heal or to wound.

And I think it is high time we start adding more honey.

Sometimes life is hard. In fact, I have to admit that sometimes I am not a big fan of being an adult. This is a scene from the TV show Will & Grace, and as I read it, I admit I am reading it in Jack’s voice because I know it well.

Things happen to us in life that are both in and out of our control. Some of those things are easy and good, some are hard and good, some are easy and terrible and some are hard and terrible. It is all the product of the fact that we live in a fallen world, a world where sin and evil abounds.

Good things happen to bad people and bad things happen to good people.

And we can’t explain any of it in a way that makes sense to our rational minds.

But it is what happens in the midst of life that keeps us pressing forward: unexpected words of encouragement in a time of deep discouragement; a surprise check in the mail that you weren’t counting on; spending time praying a particular scripture one night and the next day getting a text from a friend who was praying that same scripture over you; finding out that at a particular moment in time that you were dealing with something hard, a friend was woken with you on their heart to pray; having someone verbalize exactly what you were feeling in your heart before you even had a chance.

These moments that seem like coincidences are what I call God-incidences. Because God knows exactly what we need and when we need it. And sometimes that comes in a form that doesn’t look exactly the way we think it should. It may hurt. It may suck. It may be completely unexpected. But He knows what is best and He knows just what we need to move through each phase of our lives.

Even when “it’s very hard.”