Finding Faith in the Mess
“That’s the thing about insecurity. When it grips us, the very thing we need most-truth-is the very thing we have a hard time grasping” Lysa Terkeurst, The Best Yes “and let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we shall reap …
In Discerning the Voice of God, Priscilla Shirer talks about how we can be functional lepers. She gave some background to leprosy explaining that the disease can lay dormant for years without anyone knowing you have it. The diseased individual knows he or she is sick, but the outside world is none the wiser. The leper continues about life diseased on the inside tricking the public that they are healthy based on their outsides. Thus, they are a functional leper.
Wow. Isn’t this us today? Shirer explained this terminology using verses in 2 Kings from the Old Testament. Many say the Old Testament, even the entirety of the Bible, is outdated and not applicable to today’s culture. I look at functional leprosy and see it running rampant through our culture.
Anyone can scroll through the beautiful pictures on Instagram and witness functional leprosy. Pictures of beautiful homes, love stories displayed through perfectly lighted selfies of the couple, and kids flawlessly poised in polos and Matilda Jane dresses. Behind those images, however, can lie financial burdens, marital pains, and unruly children. We all know it’s there. Yet, we would rather see the immaculate pictures rather than acknowledge the brokenness.
As I pondered this term, I wondered if it is even possible to be a functional leper. If there is disease on the inside, it most definitely effects our outsides. There is no way it can’t. We may have convinced ourselves that we’ve hid our illness well, but when we step back and look at our lives, we can see how it has invaded every space.
There is no healthy functioning when there is disease within. Oftentimes, we believe we will get well the moment our circumstances change. What we don’t realize, is that we have to deal with the disease on the inside before the outside can see any healing.
In order to heal the diseased parts of our lives, we must first ask ourselves, Do we really want to hear from God? Because here is the deal: most of us would say we want to hear from Him but our actions show us running in the opposite direction.
We know what we need to do but are palms are sweaty and our hearts are racing and it all just seems too difficult so, we make the subconscious decision to live as a functional leper carrying the weight of our burdens instead of choosing to listen to God (even when it makes us feel like we are going to be sick) and heal from within.
Now is your time.
Stop pretending you are functioning when, in reality, you are dying on the inside.
God is speaking. He desires to heal you. Are you ready to listen? Are you ready to hear His truth?
Love & Blessings,
Meg
NOW GO LISTEN TO THIS SONG AND LAY IT DOWN!
I am a recovering perfectionist. Weeellll, I can’t honestly say I’m recovered, but I am working on getting there. I did have to do about a bazillion things and get them all perfectly in order before I could sit down and write today. So there’s …
Easter was yesterday. Or, if you are a Christian, yesterday was “Resurrection Sunday.” We put on our beautiful Easter dresses. Our husbands wear some type of button-down shirt (usually of the plaid variety). If you are like me, you finally get your boys out of athletic gear and into shorts that actually button. All three of my kids wore collared shirts (gasp). My youngest kept calling his collar his “over coat.” I can’t even. He’s adorable. We go through the rig-a-ma-roll of all the Easter traditions moving through the motions without being moved. This year, however, I was moved.
Our world is in a constant state of turmoil. The earth seems to be waning in pain most of the time. Our rest comes in distress and it doesn’t seem there is and end anywhere near. We’ve gotten used to living in the turbulence instead of resting in the grace.
Something about this state of being has us living more in Good Friday and less in Resurrection Sunday. We talk a lot about the “trials of many kinds” (James 1) we will face in this lifetime. If you watch the news, you see that we live in the negative. There isn’t much positive reporting these days. Not on TV or in our lives. Misery loves company and we are keeping it company something fierce.
What I am finding, however, is that we live because of death. Rebekah Lyons says, “Death is the gateway to life.” Christ’s death and resurrection gives life to our weary souls. Through death, we live eternally.
Death = Life
We need to start living in Resurrection Sunday remembering Good Friday. When we pitch a tent and move into the horror of Good Friday, we don’t give glory where it is deserved: to God. The same is true for our lives. We will always have “deaths.” It is a part of this life. However, with every death comes life and it is time we start celebrating this.
You are alive. You are breathing. It is time to start living. Can this life be difficult? Absolutely. Yet, there is so much beauty to be celebrated from the victory of those hard times. The more we recognize His goodness, even in the hard, the more we can celebrate and remember euphoria of Resurrection Sunday.
It is time to pull ourselves out of the pit of despair. The resurrection is for us every day not just one Sunday a year. It is time we celebrate His goodness because it is there. Every day. Even in the hard. Even in the mundane.
“With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all” Acts 4:33
He is resurrected. His grace is powerfully at work in you and I. Now that’s something to celebrate!
Love & Blessings,
Meg
Today, this Good Friday, your social media feeds will be filled with pictures of Christ on the cross and quotes about His death. people will lament about what happened on this fateful day. Most of us will scroll past because we are numb to it …
When we live in others’ perception of ourselves, we are deceived. When we live for our own perception of ourselves, we are deceived. Only God’s perception matters. I have a saying written on a chalkboard in my office. It reads, Confidence in Christ. I wrote the …
I did it, y’all.
I did what we all do.
I saw the controversial post and got sucked into the train wreck that is the comment feed left in its wake. This one wasn’t too bad. Well, in regards to today’s standards, that is.
I have a confession to make. I have noticed some anger welling up inside me. Let me give you some background to me so you understand. I am your textbook A-type personality. Micah 6:8 is my mantra. You better act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly or I’m comin’ after you. Not really. But, in my head I’m comin’ after you. I am a rule follower and if you break the rules, I ain’t playin’.
Now that you know my personality type, you can understand this anger that was percolating within me. I’ve had two phone calls in the past month that did not end well. Both were with front-desk people in the medical field. Both wanted something from me that had absolutely nothing to do with the health and well-being of the persons involved. They wanted more money from me withholding prescriptions until we did this and that. This was not a matter of unpaid bills. Instead, it was a matter of our broken healthy system. But, this is not what this post was about.
Anyway, like I was saying. Anger. It spewed from me like something I haven’t seen in a very long time and don’t want to really ever see again. I was not horrible, yet, I was not loving and kind either. If they found my blog, they would probably wonder if I were the same person.
I then come across this friend’s post. I notice someone says something horribly unkind to the poster. The person who post this is someone I love, respect, and care deeply for. My first instinct? Teach this comment-er that those words were not okay. And then I took a breath. I didn’t respond to the negative comment. I usually don’t. I just can’t. It’s not my thing; not my way. Yet, I felt like I had to do something. I had that stirring, the good kind, within me.
I decided to comment to the poster. I let her know she is loved not despicable. That she is beautiful and valued no matter what she posts. I saw in that moment that it doesn’t matter what we post, what we say, or how we act. I mean, it does matter, BUT when God looks at us do you know what He sees?
Jesus.
The words, the comments, the posts they all fade away when God looks our way. Instead He sees His Son. And if God can see His Son through all the harsh words and anger, than I can too.
As odd as this sounds, I needed that post. I needed to see it so I could be reminded of how God sees us. He doesn’t see our anger. He sees forgiveness. He doesn’t see our nasty posts online. He sees love. He doesn’t see our mistakes. He sees the scares on His Son’s hands.
He sees Jesus.
And so do I.
The next time I get wrapped up in this cold harsh world, I will choose to see Jesus. The next time I am wronged, I will choose to see Jesus. The next time I am wrapped up in some kind of injustice, I will choose Jesus. The next time I feel anger towards someone who wronged me, I will choose to see Jesus.
You are loved. You are beautiful. You are valued.
Love & Blessings,
Meg
Jesus
Jesus
You make the darkness tremble
Tremble
By: Mosaic MSC
DISCLAIMER: I wrote this post one year ago. Four years ago, my eyes were opened to a major personality flaw. We had just sold our house and moved about twenty minutes away into an apartment. We were building another house and it wouldn’t be ready …
