rejection

Faithfulness Even Still

Faithfulness Even Still

My friends in Haiti are isolated from the world again after the gangs fired on a commercial plane and the airport was closed this week. They were ousted from their homes for over a year while fighting raged around them and they went into hiding. They have shown up for teen and preteen kids who are watching their friends die, and who are still healing from their pasts. I am so blown away by their faithfulness.

I speak to several woman who are raising kids while dealing with debilitating illness and chronic pain in themselves. They show up for their families in the ways they can while desperately surviving their own health journeys. I know they often feel like they are failing, like they can’t do what other moms can do. But I stand in awe of their faithfulness to keep showing up.

The Peace of Belonging

The Peace of Belonging

I’ve been stewing on the concept of belonging for a few weeks now. You know when it feels like everything you read or listen to talks about the same thing, and you realize God is trying to tell you something? That’s how it’s been with this concept of belonging for me.

How does belonging change the way you view your life? We are all looking for a place to belong, for a people group or tribe who will rally around us, telling us we matter and have worth. Unfortunately, people are often rather faulty in doing this consistently, and end up failing us.

I blows me away that the God of the Universe reverberates over you over and over, saying, “I desire you. I want relationship with you. I want you to receive my love. I will never stop drawing you close to me, hoping you will see my incredible love for you. “

God's Compassion for Us

God's Compassion for Us

Every couple of weeks, I attend a little ladies’ Bible study at my neighbor’s house. These women have been such a gift to me in their kindness, lack of judgement (even if I didn’t read all the homework!) and compassion in walking with each other. We are studying a series on Gideon, and I have been surprised at how much I see God’s compassion for the Israelites in some of the passages of the Old Testament. This people messed up over and over, running the opposite direction from where God had told them to go.

Unwanted

Unwanted

I have talked to several people whose parents, from the day they were born, conveyed the message they were unwanted. Some parents had wanted a girl and didn’t know what to do with a boy. Some got pregnant by “accident” and felt immediate resentment toward their little one. The feeling of being unwanted stuck around and these children have been constantly looking for someone to tell them they are wanted since then. But people are terrible at consistency.