When Everything Changed

When Everything Changed

“It’s hard to know what the next moment will bring, so enjoy what you have while you can.”

Loren Thornburg

Life is full of markers, of moments when everything changed.  On December 14^th, 2012 everything changed for families, for schools, for America.  Although many states removed, I can’t help but think and feel a little different than I did before that day.  I wasn’t there, I don’t know anyone who was, and I haven’t had to walk through anything like it, but I can’t help but feel the weight and fear.  As I see the faces and grieve their loss I am unsure what it looks like from here.  I walk through a parking lot and wonder if that could be the place that another act of violence will occur.  Yet in that same breathe I can’t help but also enjoy all the more, the moments I have now with those around me.  You see the thing is, my safety has never been guaranteed, nor is that of any of those around me.  So all I know to do is enjoy to the full all that I have been given for as long as I am given it to enjoy.  I grieve for the day that everything changed for so many families and as I fall to my knees I find thanks for another day with those I love. 

“For to you is born this day in the town of David a Savior, Who is Christ the Messiah the Lord!” 

Luke 2:11 Amplified

In these days of grief I have to remember Hope.  I am so thankful for that day long ago when everything changed, but this time it was change for everlasting LIFE.  It was that day when a Savior was born for us.  Hope came in a way no one would have guessed.  No one could have made up a story like that which people would have believed.  The shepherds saw it and they knew.  Mary saw the Son and she knew that everything was going to change.  As we grieve tremendous loss and change there is one thing that doesn’t change...hope.  Hope remains because Jesus came.  So grieve, but don’t forget that long before December 14, 2012 Hope came to save you.  It came to meet you right where you are in whatever pain, loss, fear, or shame you find yourself in.  He came to give you life in the midst of those places.  Jesus came to save you...that’s when everything changed.  

2012 Devotional Books are available for purchase.  The proceeds helps raise money for Competitive Edge International.  Email me if you are interested in ordering. 

Make Room

“Make room for Love.  Make space for Hope.  Make time for Truth.  Let the things that matter most have room in your life.”
Loren Thornburg

With Christmas on it’s way we make room for lots of things in our lives.  We are buying presents, going to parties, decorating, planning and more.  We make room in our homes for the guests coming into town, but, what about the things that matter most?  What about the reasons we are doing all of these preparations?  Are we giving those things room in our lives?  We spend a lot of time preparing for the physical preparations, but what about our hearts?  Are we giving them room to prepare?  Are we making space for the things that mean the most to us?  First we need to know what those things are and then we need to make room for them in our lives.  It’s so easy to get caught in the craze of things and miss the point.  Make room for the things that matter most.  

“Let the Word of Christ-The Message-have run of the house.  Give it plenty of room in your lives.” 
Colossians 3:16 Message

God wants run of the house, not just a part of the house.  He wants plenty of room in our lives not just one of the rooms of our hearts.  So often we want to give him part of our lives and not all of it.  We think that parts of our lives are separate from Him, but He is in and through all of it.  He is there in our work, our play, our eating, our relationships, our dreams, our grieving...everything, but often we don’t invite Him into those things.  We don’t give Him permission to have His way in those things.  We are so often more concerned about our rooms looking good, our house looking good, our lives looking good, then we are with letting God into them.  We seek to impress everyone except the One who brings the love we are looking for in our impressing.  So decorate, yes; give gifts, yes; prepare for parties, yes; but not to impress, but to celebrate the One who loves us without any impressing.  Make room to spend time with Him like you make room for all the Christmas festivities.  So as we sing in “Joy to the World”, may “every heart prepare him room”...including yours.    

2012 Devotional Books are available for purchase.  The proceeds helps raise money for Competitive Edge International.  Email me if you are interested in ordering.  

Joy to the world! the Lord is come;
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare him room,
And heaven and nature sing,
And heaven and nature sing,
And heaven, and heaven, and nature sing.

Joy to the world! the Saviour reigns;
Let men their songs employ;
While fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat, repeat the sounding joy.

No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as, the curse is found.

He rules the world with truth and grace,
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders, wonders, of His love.

Talking My Language

“People need to hear; people need to know; people need to believe...enter in and speak their language.”

Loren Thornburg

We use the phrase, “now you’re talking my language,” when we agree or feel understood by someone.  More than speaking English or French it is a deeper level of meeting someone where they are with similar interests and likes.  What would that look like for you?  For me it might be someone talking softball or healthy living or being real.  Those are things I can understand and get on board with.  After having spent a few days surrounded by softball coaches I am reminded that to reach people we have to speak their language.  If you want to reach and care for a softball coach you would talk the softball lingo and so I did, which isn’t hard since that’s my lingo too.  But what about people who aren’t softball players or into the same things I am?  I need to discover what their language is and speak it if I want to have favor and influence in their life.  I am not talking about people pleasing I am talking about being intentional to enter into to people’s lives and meet them where they are.  Let’s enter in and hear them say…
“Now you’re talking my language.”    

“Instructed by the king, they set off. Then the star appeared again, the same star they had seen in the eastern skies. It led them on until it hovered over the place of the child. They could hardly contain themselves: They were in the right place! They had arrived at the right time!”  Matthew 2:9-10 Message

I love how God speaks our language!  He will use whatever He can to speak to us.  To the scholars (wise men) studying the stars He used a star.  The star they followed led them to Himself.  He is speaking to us still today, using whatever our “language” is to meet us.  Finding Him is always His desire and goal.  Often I overlook how often a song  will minister to me not realizing God is speaking my language.  He is meeting us where we are at.  He is speaking to you in your own language.  Do you hear Him?  He is drawing you closer to Him if you will listen to His voice.  Follow Him as the wise men did to the right place at the right time...to see more of Him.  Don’t miss Him...He is speaking your language.

Press Pause

“Take a break from the action; press pause on the music; take a moment to rest.”

Loren Thornburg

They call it the most wonderful time of the year, but I often find it to be the most  stressful time of the year with all the shopping and parties and traveling.  As I anticipate all the craze that is to come I am reminded that I need to pause so that I can enjoy it all.  The pause button is a convenient feature on movie and music players that allows for a temporary rest or stop.  I find I could use this in my life much more often than I do.  I don’t have to stop what I am doing altogether, but I can simply take a step away for a few moments to regain perspective and composure on the action and activity of my life.  When the emotions start swirling around me I can pause to rest, reflect, and see things more as they really are rather than get carried away by the craziness of it all.  If we could hit pause more often we might be able to prevent having “stop” pressed for us because we reached the point of exhaustion or burn out.  Take a moment to rest.  Press pause on your life.  It will still be there to press play again soon. 

“But all who listen to me will live in peace, untroubled by fear of harm.”

Proverbs 1:33 NLT

Something happens when we pause.  We start to hear; we hear our thoughts and the cries of our heart.  Now they are not always fun thoughts or thoughts we want to have, but it is in hearing them that we can address them.  It is in stopping that we can hear more than our thoughts, but what the Lord is saying about those thoughts.  When we pause long enough to listen to His voice something happens...peace.  Listening to God brings peace because His voice, His words are life.  It is in this peace that we will be untroubled by fear of harm or the chaos around us.  Now I don’t mean this as a formula to avoid harm, but rather that even in the midst of trouble when we stop to listen for His voice we can find peace even there.  You see it is not so much about being at peace because there wasn’t a fear of harm, but peace in the midst of it because His voice does that, it brings peace.  Now that is something worth stopping for.  So whatever surrounds you, whatever chaos is to come get good at stopping, at pausing to hear the voice that leads to peace.  

2012 Devotional Books are available for purchase.  The proceeds helps raise money for Competitive Edge International.  Email me if you are interested in ordering.  

More than Food

“If you can’t find it on the inside you won’t find it on the outside.”

Thanksgiving wasn’t always about the food.  It began with what you might expect by the name; a day to give thanks and prayers.  In 1789 President Washington wanted to institute a “public thanksgiving and prayer” devoted to “the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be.”    It wasn’t about the food, it wasn’t about the decorations, it wasn’t about the house, it wasn’t about anything but thanks.  Thanks isn’t something you find in the things you think you might, because if you don’t find it inside of you nothing on the outside will sustain it for you.  We spend so much time focusing on looking put together and a good presentation that we miss what we are really searching for in those things...contentment.  We want to feel good about who we are and the direction we are headed.  We look all over for it but it’s not an outside-in process.  It only works inside-out.  Stop looking for what you already have...the capacity to be thankful.  Acknowledge and never stop that which you have to be thankful for and as you keep acknowledging you will find a new way of seeing, a new way of being...content...it starts with thanks.  

“You’re blessed when you’re content with just who you are--no more, no less.  That’s the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can’t be bought.”

Matthew 5:5 Message

The blessing is not in the receiving but in not needing to.  God calls us to be thankful and content because He knows how that will bless and shape our lives.  He knows we have every reason in Him to be thankful and how much we need to be thankful.  It protects us from the destruction and harm of envy, jealousy and discontent.  It provides us with joy even in the hard places.  Thankfulness brings us back to Him the giver of all we have to be thankful for.  So you see it’s for us.   If you are searching for blessing ask for contentment and keep asking.  You will find more than you ever wanted on the feet of thankfulness.  

2012 Devotional Books are available for purchase.  The proceeds helps raise money for Competitive Edge International.  Email me if you are interested in ordering.  

Cultivate Thankfulness

“Our lives grow that which has been planted.”

Loren Thornburg

I hope some day to have a backyard like my parents.  Yet I know all the hours of work it takes to make that happen.  I am fully aware that in order to have a backyard full of trees, flowers, fruits and vegetables it takes the work of planting each of those seeds and plants into the ground and the work of cultivating them.  I would never expect my own backyard to look like that without time and work being spent to plant and maintain it.  Yet, somehow I do that with my own life.  I look and wonder why it doesn’t look more fruitful when the reason is that those things have not been planted or cultivated.  It takes work and time.  So then the question becomes what things do I want to grow in my life.  What things do you want to grow in your life?  Start planting now, keep cultivating, and let those things grow up in you.  It’s never too late to cultivate.  

“...And cultivate thankfulness….And sing, sing your hearts out to god! Let every detail in you lives--words, actions, whatever--be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way.”

Colossians 3:15-17 Message

Colossians 3 is a listing of what it looks like to follow Jesus.  One of the key things mentioned is thankfulness.  Paul says to thank God every step of the way.  Now that seems like a very difficult task.  It seems a tall order for a life filled with difficulty and obstacles to thank God in each step through the trials.   Yet we are called to cultivate thankfulness.  Cultivate means to promote or improve the growth of something by labor and attention.  It is a process that requires time and work.  It doesn’t happen overnight as I would prefer that it would.  I have to plant seeds of thankfulness in my heart and mind in order for them to grow up and out of my life.  I have to be intentional about remembering what I am thankful for even when I don’t feel thankful.  I have to because God calls us to and He calls us to because He knows how much we need this in order to walk through the trial before us.  Our lives grow that which has been planted.  Cultivate Thankfulness. 

2012 Devotional Books are available for purchase.  The proceeds helps raise money for Competitive Edge International.  Email me if you are interested in ordering.  

More to Come

More to Come

“Be present where you are with a present awareness that there is more life to come.”

Loren Thornburg

Life is so interesting and full of ups and downs.  This weekend on the same day that I celebrated the wedding of a friend I also found myself saddened as other friends lost their house to a fire.  As I engaged with people at the wedding I found more losses going on of health, of joy, of dreams all mixed in between other celebrations of the same.  Somehow I left thankful.  Thankful because I began the day in the midst of seeing only my own frustrations and losses and found as I entered into the lives around me I have much to celebrate even in my losses.  Now I don’t mean because someone else has it worse I should be thankful, although I can’t help but think that too.  I mean regardless of looking around me I have life and I have much to be thankful for.  It is the losses that remind me that the gifts I have are not guaranteed to stay.  So while they are here I want to enjoy them.  There is a time to grieve and mourn what was lost, but now is always the time to be presently aware of all I have been given that brings me life.  

“There’s more to come: We continue to shout our praise even when we’re hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next.  In alert expectancy such as this, we’re never left feeling shortchanged.  Quite the contrary--we can’t round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit!”

Romans 5:3-5 Message

Paul knew the secret to praising in the midst of trial and loss.  He is reminding the believers here in Romans that thankfulness in these challenges is possible when we remember there is more to come.  With this in view we can shout praise even when troubles surround us.  In keeping our eyes on Him, beyond the troubles we can stay alert to what God is doing and will do next.  We don’t feel “shortchanged” or bitter from the hand life has dealt us, but rather we see how much we have been given that we don’t deserve and how much more there is to come.  It says, “we can’t round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit.”  Do you see how He has done that and is doing that?  And He doesn’t stop there, there is more to come.  There is more life than what we find here.  So whether you are celebrating or mourning you can be thankful that there is always more to come when we walk with Jesus...more joy, more life, more freedom.  It’s coming, He’s coming, He’s here.   

2012 Devotional Books are available for purchase.  The proceeds helps raise money for Competitive Edge International.  Email me if you are interested in ordering (thorny424@hotmail.com). 

Unshakable

“Let nothing stand between you and unshakable.”

Loren Thornburg

Since living in Colorado I have had the opportunity to explore the mountains with some amazing hikes.  With hiking also comes scree.  Scree is the accumulation of rock fragments formed by weathering and erosion.  The presence of scree on the trails makes for a slippery surface.  Even just a few small pebbles can create the possibility of slipping no matter how stable the foundation underneath.   Even as I become well versed on traveling through the scree and even if I have poles and all the right tools, I am still more at risk when my foundation is altered.  It makes me wonder what kind of scree I have in my life that presents the possibility for slipping and falling.  What things have I allowed to become that which I am standing on that aren’t a true foundation?  Am I standing on the opinions of others, or my accomplishments, or relationships, or financial status or anything that can be shaken?  I can’t just sweep it away on the trails of a mountain, but I can begin to clear it away in my life as that which gives me my hope and security.  Step off of the scree and onto that which is unshakable.  

“Do you see what we’ve got? An unshakable kingdom! And do you see how thankful we must be? Not only thankful, but brimming with worship, deeply reverent before God.  For God is not an indifferent bystander.  He’s actively cleaning house, torching all that needs to burn, and he won’t quit until it’s all cleansed.  God himself is Fire!”

Hebrews 12:28-29 Message

God is unshakable.  He is a foundation that can’t and won’t ever be moved.  He is the same yesterday, today and forever.  When we settle in Him we get His sure foundation based on truth that never changes.  Yet, even one small pebble on that foundation can cause a fall when stepped on.  It only takes a little scree to create a potentially unstable surface.  God knows that and in His love is trying to remove it.  He is cleaning the places of our hearts that are standing on all that isn’t Him.  He won’t quit because He loves us.  In the removing process it can feel unsettling, but that’s until you see what God is doing and what He is building in your life.  He is clearing the stage for you to walk free from the scree onto a foundation that is unshakable.  

Son Exposure

“It’s in the light we can see.  It’s in the light we find life.  It’s in the light there is joy. Find the light.  It makes all the difference.”

Loren Thornburg

I am so thankful for a warm weekend in late October and the chance to be in the sun.  There is something about the sun that makes things better.  There is also something about the lack of sun that takes its toll on me.  I can’t deny the affects it has on me.  I find myself like a lizard drawn to bask in the sun.  It appears it is more than just me, but there is something biological about the ways our bodies were made.  Even more than the needed Vitamin D that we get from the sun there is something that happens when we are exposed to the sun that causes are brains to release endorphins that increase our overall feelings of well being.  There is something about having light in our lives, even more than the sunlight that brings life to our lives.  You were made for light.  Are you basking in it?  

“Everything was created through him; nothing--not one thing!--came into being without him.  What came into existence was Life, and the Life was Light to live by.  The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness; the darkness couldn’t put it out.”

John 1:3-5 Message

Just as we were made for the light of the sun so we were also made for the light of the Son, Jesus.  We were created to be in relationship with Him.  The same as with the sunlight, when we go too long without Him our deficiencies begin to show.  When we aren’t in communication and relation with Jesus it takes its toll on us.  It comes out in many different ways: short temper, inability to handle difficulties, lack of life, missing joy, and so many others.  We find ourselves searching for something to bring light to that place we know is dark but looking in all the wrong places.  There is only one that brings true Light because there is only one that is true Light.  We need to be with the Son.  We need to sit at His feet and bask in His presence.  We were made for it.  Let’s do what we were made to do...bask in the Son.  

Meaning in the Mundane

“It’s the days that feel insignificant that are significant after all.”

Loren Thornburg

Life is a series of events in the middle of many mundane days.  We are all familiar with the mundane.  Theses are the things in our lives that lack excitement because we experience them as common and ordinary.  It’s in the dishes, the laundry, the meals, the same routine day after day that leaves us longing for something more.  Yet, what if you knew that it is in the mundane itself that gives life deeper meaning.  It is in the mundane that we learn perseverance for the hard days.  It is upon the mundane that the things of joy have greater significance.  The mundane is actually not mundane at all for those who can learn to see the meaning in it.  Each day is building us, growing us for the next thing.  There is meaning in this day, even in the mundane.  

“When my soul is in the dumps, I rehearse everything I know of you.  From Jordan depths to Hermon heights, including Mount Mizar.  Chaos calls to chaos, to the tune of whitewater rapids.  Your breaking surf, your thundering breakers crash and crush me.  Then God promises to love me all day, sing songs all through the night! My life is God’s prayer.”

Psalm 42:6-8 Message

It’s one thing to seek God in the depths and the heights but what about the days that seem like just another day.  Here those are referred to as Mount Mizar for this site can not be located, implying it’s seeming insignificance.  This can be representative of our everyday walk with the Lord and the little things God does for us in what we see as mundane.  The food on our table, the wisdom in decisions, the provision in our jobs, the relationships that we have been given, they are all a part of His miracles that may in fact influence more than the big events.  You see it’s not mundane after all because these things happen every day.  So we can do look David and rehearse these small miracles that we know are from Him.  This invites His promises into our souls.  Either way His promises remain true.  He is with us every day.   When we learn to walk with Him and trust His promises there is nothing insignificant about that.  

Gift Disguised

“When you start seeing the gift you stop seeing the handicap.”

Loren Thornburg

Gifts can often go unseen.  Often they are even seen as a hinderance rather than a gift.  A friend reminded me of this recently as we hiked.  Climbing up to 14,000 feet is not an easy task, largely due to the affects that altitude has on your breathing.  Yet, what seemed to be a hinderance to getting up the mountain as fast as we may have liked became a gift that it was hard to breathe.  For what happened in the midst of that was we were forced to stop and enjoy the AMAZING views and beauty that surrounded us.  If it wasn’t for our difficulty breathing we may have kept on without stopping, which means we would have kept on without enjoying and seeing the gift around us.  My friend pointed out it was as if God made us to have limits so that we would stop and see the gifts that are around us.  

“...so I wouldn’t get a big head, I was given the gift of a handicap to keep me in constant touch with my limitations.  Satan’s angel did his best to get me down; what he in fact did was push me to my knees...”My grace is enough; it’s all you need.  My strength comes into its own in your weakness”...I quit focusing  on the handicap and began appreciating the gift...”

2 Corinthians 12:7-10 Message

I wish I couldn’t relate to Paul here, but I can.  We all can.  We all have limitations.  We were designed that way and it is part of His design. Paul recognizes them as more than limitations, as the opposite of limitations; he calls them gifts.  That sounds crazy to think that our sicknesses, our weaknesses, our deficiencies could be seen as gifts.  Yet, it’s true.  I’ve seen it and I can even say that those things I once saw as “handicaps” I now see as gifts.  Some days it’s harder to see than others, but eventually what I find is that they brings me to the realization that in the weakness I am forced to look to Him for strength in ways I never would have or even thought possible.  It is in inviting His strength that I find so much more than my talents or gifts could have ever offered.  Unfortunately, I don’t look to Him for that if I don’t have to.  If my limitations don’t force my to my knees I forget to seek His grace that is more than enough.  So I find it really is a gift.  When I start seeing the gift I stop seeing the handicap.  

Thanks to Melissa Mullins and Kierstie Cameron!

Move to be Moved

"Sometimes we need to start moving in order to be moved to keep moving.”

Loren Thornburg

I love those moments when passion overwhelms you and you can’t help but put things into action; when you feel so called towards something that nothing can stop you from making it happen.  The problem is it doesn’t always work like that.  Often we don’t feel like doing something until we start doing it.  I remember training for a half marathon.  I rarely felt like going for a run, but if I could just get my shoes on, get out the door, and start running I would start to get into it and remember why I wanted to run a half marathon.  Yet, if I were left up to what I felt like doing in that moment I would not have gone for very many runs.  Many things in life are the same way.  We have to start moving before we feel moved towards what we are wanting to do.  If you are waiting to feel moved you may have to wait awhile.  Start moving and you just might find the passion you were waiting to find.  

“No unbelief or distrust made him waver (doubtingly question) concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong and was empowered by faith as he gave praise and glory to God.”

Romans 4: 20 Amplified

Abraham had great faith that didn’t waver which I long to have.  Instead of wavering in unbelief or distrust he grew strong.  Each day we are faced with similar opportunities where we can doubt or we can walk in faith.  Abraham grew strong in his faith not because he was filled with feelings of faith but because he praised God.  He grew strong and was empowered by faith AS he gave praise.  It wasn’t that he felt like praising but that he knew that it was in praising that the faith he needed to walk through the next obstacle would come.  I have had many moments where I don’t feel like worshiping until I start singing and remembering how great my God is and how He is at work.  Often it’s not until I kneel before the Lord that I feel free before Him.  My posture leads to my praise.  It’s then, after I have started praising, AS I give praise and glory to God that I find  I am moved to keep praising.  It’s through this praise that I too am strengthened to keep moving in that which God has called me.  So let’s praise that we would find the strength and faith we need to keep moving and walking in faith.  

Off Your Back

There is a saying that refers to a constant burden as the ‘monkey on your back.’  Some say it began as ‘monkey off your roof’ in reference to the burden of a mortgage payment.  We all have different things that have been a burden at one time or another.  In sports often times we carry the errors of the plays before us.  What happens is like we are going up to bat with a physical monkey on our back in the ways that we carry those previous mistakes and burdens with us.  Life is the same way.  Whether it be the mistakes of our past, resentment, unforgiveness, bitterness, woundings; we carry those with us until we let them go.  It may be hard to admit those things are there and begin to deal with them in their pain and the ways they have affected us, but so is carrying all of them everyday, everywhere we go.  So why not get that monkey off your back and start to walk  lighter and more free?  You’ll wonder why you didn’t do it earlier.  It’s time to let go.    

“Make a clean break with all cutting, backbiting, profane talk.  Be gentle with one another, sensitive.  Forgive one another as quickly and thoroughly as God in Christ forgave you.”

Ephesians 4:31-32 Message

Forgiveness means letting someone off of your hook and onto God’s.  Somehow in our pain and suffering from the actions of others we believe that if we carry the burden of it that will somehow even the score.  The problem is they often don’t know we are carrying them, and so it costs them nothing, but costs us everything.  So much is lost at the hands of unforgiveness: joy, freedom, hope, and life.  Not to mention the ways that our unforgiveness affects others.  The giftings God has given us are at stake and our freedom to relate with one another as God intended.  That is why we must forgive as quickly and as thoroughly as Christ did.  Quickly means not letting it linger or waiting for it to build.  Thoroughly means forgiving not only for what’s been done to you but also all the ways it has affected you.  He did it first that we could go back to His forgiveness and forgive out of that.  So make a clean break, stop carrying the weight of it.  It’s about more than you. Be quick.  Be thorough. Be free.  

Shine In

“Let the light shine in on all the places of your heart; even the dark, heard to reach ones.”
Loren Thornburg

There is something about sunrise and seeing the first ray of light that I love.  As I was enjoying a sunrise, looking into a small valley I noticed how as the sun got higher it lit up more places in the valley.  Now this is not rocket science to know that as the sun gets higher more light will make it’s way into the valley and eventually the whole valley will have light shining in on it.  Yet, this is not always true with our hearts and lives.  For we can still have places that we keep hidden in the shadows that may never see the light.  If they never see the light we will never see them for what they really are...and for some of those things we want to keep them that way.  If that’s the case I have bad news for you: Those things will surface one way or another.  They may be disguised as bitterness or anger or other emotions, but they will surely surface.  So why not let the light in now before you get held captive by it?  

“Through the heartfelt mercies of our God, God’s Sunrise will break in upon us, Shining on those in the darkness, those sitting in the shadow of death, Then showing us the way, one foot a time, down the path of peace.”

Luke 1:79 Message

God’s light, His sunrise light, His light when all is dark, will break in upon us.  He comes to shine on our dark places. Not to break us but to heal us.  Even in the places that look and feel like death, even in the places that are hard, even in the places that we would rather not go, He comes.  He comes not to shame us but to show us the way. Knowing how much you can handle, one step at a time.  For it is “through the heartfelt mercies of our God” that His light breaks in on us, ushering us down the path of peace.  He invites us to let Him bring light to the dark places.  To the lie you’ve been believing, to the situation that is corrupt, to the secret you are ashamed of, to the hate you feel, to the bitterness you battle, to the anger that creeps in, to all of it He invites us to let Him shine in on it.  He can shine His light that reveals truth, freedom, and peace.  Let His light rise on you until He shines on all of the shadows of your heart!

Enter the Silence

“Silence is the hard to reach place that takes us to places hard to reach without it.”

Loren Thornburg

For many of us there is not a shortage of busyness and noise. Those things are easy to come by and we are comfortable with them.  It’s the silence that is hard to find and often hard to sit in and remain there.  It doesn’t usually happen on it’s own.  We have to be intentional to make space fork it.  We have to schedule it in, close our door, and refuse to let distractions steal us away from the silence that we need.  For it is in silence that we hear truth.  It is in silence that we can take a step back and see what’s really going on around us and in us.  It is in silence that we remember what’s important.  Without silence we miss seeing, hearing and remembering.  And without those things we will get lost; lost in the busyness, lost in the noise, and lost in the chaos of life.   Reach for silence even when it’s hard.  It’s worth the reach.  

“When life is heavy and hard to take, go off by yourself.  Enter the silence.  Bow in prayer.  Don’t ask questions: Wait for hope to appear. Don’t run from trouble.  Take it full-face.  The “worst” is never the worst.  Why? Because the Master won’t ever walk out and fail to return.”

Lamentations 3:28-31 Message

It sounds so simple: When things get hard, go be quiet before God and enter the silence with Him.  Yet, it’s far from easy for me.  Somehow that is the last thing I want when life is heavy.  I want something else.  I want something to hear, something to hold, something I can see.  So I look for that in music, books, friends, TV, but it’s not there. Although God often uses all of those things in my life, when He is calling me to enter the silence they just can’t meet me there.   For in these times I leave those places, although thankful for the break from the heaviness, still searching.  Eventually when I find myself entering the silent spaces with my Faithful Creator I find hope.  It takes waiting, it takes wrestling, it takes faith, but it is there I am found.  I was lost in the noise until I entered the silence on which I hear God speak.  I see my God be faithful again.  It really wasn’t the worst like I thought it was, but it was the thing that showed me once again what is really true: God finds me in those places and never stops finding me.  Silence may be hard to find but it’s where we are found.

Space Between

“Your community is big when the space between you and others is small.”

Loren Thornburg

Today in church as someone sat in the once empty and not so big chair next to me I was aware of how our culture, myself included likes our space.  Most of us have an idea of how close is too close and we adhere to that.  When someone enters into that personal space bubble we become uncomfortable.  The problem is that this translates over to our hearts.  You see we were made for connection, intimacy and community.  In order for these to function as we need and as they were intended requires giving up the space that we are comfortable with.  It demands we let people into that space, giving up our rights to comfort and inviting us into community.  Give up the space between and let community in.  You need it and it needs you.  

“And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.”
Hebrews 10:25 NLT

Especially now we need community.  It wasn’t just then, but it’s us too.  They weren’t the only ones that needed to be reminded of its importance.  It’s easy to neglect meeting together.  It’s easy to neglect letting people into our lives and going deep into theirs.  Yet, we need it and even more we are called to it, we are commanded to it.  God made you for it.   He knows the great encouragement you have to offer and others have to offer you.  He knows you need it.  This means letting down our walls.  This means giving up the space that makes us feel safe and comfortable.  This means letting God have His way with the space He has given us. So enter in and let God have His way with your space.  

Escorted by Pain

“Sometimes pain escorts us to places we would never have gone on our own.”

Loren Thornburg

Pain is painful.  You can’t ignore it.  It begs for your attention and forces you to attend to it.  Never have I wished for pain, yet I am reminded of the healing that comes because it was painful.  I would have missed the healing if pain had not escorted me there.  I would have ignored it and pretended that it wasn’t there if it hadn’t begged for my attention.  We see this example in our physical bodies.  The pain of a cut, broken bone or other ailment reminds us to clean it so that we will find healing from it. Our hearts are no different.  Pain reveals the parts of your heart that you don’t see.  Sometimes you don’t even know it’s there until the pain escorts you there.  Once you have been taken there you can either let it escort you to healing or choose to look the other way.  The catch is that if you don’t look at it now it will surface again later.  It will beg for your attention until it finds healing.  Your heart longs for healing.  Let pain escort you there.  

“Reveal your light and your faithfulness! They will lead me, they will escort me back to your holy hill, and to the place where you live.”

Psalm 43:3

In this psalm we see the longing of a troubled soul for God.  This is what pain does.  It reveals our deepest longing for our God.  We long for relationship and intimacy with Him for this is what we were created for.  In the pain our cry is for Him to come meet us in that place that we could see His light in that darkness and His faithfulness in what feels abandoned.  We need an escort and He is the only one that can do that.  This is the gospel.  God gave us Jesus, His son so that we could be escorted into intimacy with our Father, our God.  He wants all of us and is willing to allow us pain to get us.  He is the only one that can escort us from pain to the healing of our deepest pain and desire.  He is the only one that knows our pain, knows how to meet us there, and knows how to best lead us through that place.  He sees our pain and wants to accompany us to healing.  Let Him take you by the hand even now, even here.  He is your best escort.  

Guard the Goods

“You have been given much that is good.  Guard it well.”

Loren Thornburg

We go to great lengths to guard that which is worth much to us.  We put our money in banks, our valuables in safes, and our sentimental items in a special spot.  Yet, what do we do with the goods we have been given that aren’t of physical worth?  How are we guarding our relationships, the truth we’ve learned, and the things we are thankful for?  Guard means to protect, preserve and keep watch.  It’s easy to lose sight of the goods that don’t have a monetary value, but we can’t afford to.  Relationships, truth, and all we have to be thankful for are the very things that give us life.  These are the very things that will keep you from that which steals life.  You have been given many good things.  Keep close watch over them.  If you don’t guard your goods, you will lose them and the life that they bring.  Guard what’s good and keep close what’s true.  

“Guard and keep [with the greatest care] the precious and excellently adapted [Truth] which has been entrusted [to you], by the [help of the] Holy Spirit Who makes His home in us.”

2 Timothy 1:14 Amplified

This isn’t a recommendation it is a necessity.  We must guard and keep with the greatest care the truth God has been given to us.  They are of great worth.  The truth of the Bible, the things God has revealed, the words He has spoken to our hearts, those things are of great value.  They are precious and they have been entrusted to you, so guard them well.  Keep close watch over those things.  This means reminding ourselves of them often and letting them soak into our hearts.  It means having people around you who can help bring these things back  into your sight.  Ask the Holy Spirit to help you for there is a great spiritual battle for these things.  It looks different for different people at different times. What does it look like for you to guard with the greatest care the goods God has given you?  

Beyond Disappointment

“Hope is often hiding beyond the disappointment."

Loren Thornburg

This time of the year is fun when many gather around to share the Olympic experience.  I love how sports can unite us.  Yet, the hard part is that not everyone wins.  That is the excitement of winning and yet the great disappointment of losing.  It is so hard to watch and see the athletes watch as their dreams fade away.  They’ve spent thousands of hours working towards what comes down to a moment, only for many to come up short.  We’ve all been there in that moment having spent much time in hopes of something that seems to only bring disappointment.  It’s a part of life for those who are willing to risk.  It’s worth it, not only for the joy of accomplishment, but also the joy of the journey to get there with the celebrations and purpose along the way.  Yet, what do you do with that disappointment.  It can feel so heavy at times.  We are offered so many places to take that disappointment, but they all subside and leave us only momentarily eased.  They all do, except for one and that is HOPE.  So, in the face of disappointment, when dreams seem faded away,  risk again against the odds, hope again against feared defeat.  It’s the only way to know what joy you might find hiding...beyond the disappointment.

“My help and glory are in God--granite-strength and safe-harbor-God--So trust him absolutely, people; lay your lives on the line for him.  God is safe place to be.”

Psalm 62:7-8 Message

God is very familiar with disappointment, yours included.  He is not asking you not to have it, but to bring it to Him.  Yet, that doesn’t come without risks.  Risking that He really is good, risking that He will be careful with it and with us, risking that we really can trust Him with them.  These things are true, but often we don’t take that risk.  Instead we take our struggles to anything else that will ease the pain only to find that it is once again true: God is our only help that is strong, safe and trustworthy.  We can trust Him with our disappointment and take it to Him knowing He is careful with it and knows how to turn it into joy.  That’s our God!  That’s our Hope!

When Nothing Makes Sense

“When nothing makes sense, 

When all hope seems dim, 

Still truth reigns, 

still love WINS.” 

Loren Thornburg

Life brings events and circumstances that just don’t make sense.  They leave us asking why.  The shootings in Aurora, Colorado are one of those seemingly confusing events.  Why would someone do something like this?  Why did God let this happen?  Why now?  Yet, it’s not just this event.  These questions come across our own lives in many ways, through many circumstances, at many times.  Although, there are responses that speak to this question there are no answers that really satisfy the pain of it all.  However, there is one thing to keep in mind which I often forget in the midst of these times...evil is real.  The reality of evil is often overlooked and forgotten until moments like these that remind us.  Then it seems the real question becomes, ‘Why wouldn’t this have happened?’  So then, what do we do with this?...we fight, we love, we forgive, even when nothing makes sense.  For even when nothing makes sense, Love still wins.  

“Dear friends, don’t be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you.” 

1 Peter 4:12 NLT

Peter is writing to believers here to encourage them in the midst of trials.  It seems they are no different than me most of the time.  I forget that this life carries trials and evil that should be expected.  Somehow I seem to lend towards the opposite.  I seem to be “suprised at the fiery trials I am going through, as if something strange were happening to me.”  It reminds me of a teaching I heard, about those fighting in a war and how they expect to be shot and fired at.  So should we.  We should expect it with a prepared expectancy to stand strong against it, knowing that we know Who has the ultimate victory.  The end of the story is that we are going to a party where as Greg Stier says, "All evil will be sucked up in this bottomless pit.”  He continues with, “Until then, we have a battle to fight."  This is our calling that we would fight and keep fighting with love as our anchor, with truth in our mouths.  Love will WIN!  

SEEN

“You are not forgotten, you have not gone unseen;

You’re noticed, you’re valued, you’re priceless...You are SEEN.”

Loren Thornburg

There is something powerful about feeling seen.  Having spent two weeks in a nation that feels forgotten and unseen I am reminded of the power of the platform we have to see the unseen.  For in the midst of their sense of feeling forgotten the opportunity to remember them becomes all the more meaningful to them. It is a recognition of who they are and the value they have.  I can’t help but think back to those times that I too have felt unseen but someone came and saw me.  That moment that empowers the soul to know that who we are matters.  We all need it.    You are seen.  Do you see it?

“If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers--most of which are never even seen--don’t you think he’ll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you?”

Matthew 6:30 MSG

We all long for that moment of feeling seen and seek it any way that we can, sometimes at the sacrifice of what really matters.  The problem is those things don’t truly meet that place in us.  Only He can.  He can because He already sees you.  You don’t have to do anything to be noticed by Him.  He sees every wildflower even those that may seem unseen and He sees you even when you feel unseen.  I don’t just mean He sees you and moves on but God sees in a way that He sees to the core of you.  He knows you and loves to attend to those places in you often before you even know they need attending to.  GOD sees you...just ask Him.