it's time to get really really real right now. buckle your seat belts.
i am acutely aware right now of my own humanity. frailty. brokenness.
a friend told me to listen to one of my favorite songs tonight while reading her blog and i encourage you to do the same reading mine.
things have been happening. nothing extremely devastating. oh believe me i have had those times. everything, however, has been somewhat life altering.
and i have had this stress, this anxiety, in my shoulders like a burden across my back that i had to carry. the weight of the world, if you will. my little world.
i am no super mom. having 5 kids is hard. it is exhausting.
- having 1 kid is exhausting. let's all be honest about that one. -
but i am exhausted... near tears and yet too tired to cry. it isn't the kids who are wearing on me. sure they have their own rough moments. it is just all this tiredness and the little things that happen on top of it.
for example...
a chicken falling over dead in her sleep and finding her in the yard. no explanation.
tires that won't wear evenly and spending 7 hours last week over multiple days in car repair shop waiting rooms.
my computer dying and being left wondering how i lived organized without using my computer - i feel paralyzed in the simple tasks of managing my own home (or blogging for that matter).
i know that simply reading my blog can skew your perspective of me as a normal human full of frailty and brokenness. let me shatter that image right now and let you know that i am having a hard time just like you are having or have had yourself. i find myself crying out to the Lord, why am i so shaken?
the song popped into my head today on Christ the solid rock i stand, all other ground is sinking sand and i realized: if i am feeling so shaken by so much these days, might i have some sand still in my foundation when i had hoped was only built on Him?
...and tears fill my eyes at the revelation of my own fallenness.
it is the Holy Spirit's mercy to reveal this to me, but pains my heart to see it so. i build upon the Rock, and yet somewhere i started trusting in other things as well and when those things shifted my trust got shaky.
at some point while i was trusting Him to be my Lord and Savior, i started wanting to take the reigns of my life and felt the pressure to save myself.
...and i am not a very good savior.
once again i am crying out for the grace to lean upon my Beloved. it isn't that these fairly normal life circumstances caused the turmoil in my soul. the turmoil has always been there lying undisturbed and hidden from even me. the circumstances just give me an opportunity to see what was already in my heart and be able to cry out for Him to be my Everything.
there are no super christians. no matter what you think of the amazing preacher, the encouraging blogger, or the "super mom" who seems to have it all together, the truth of the matter is we are all weak and all in need of the One who remains the same when everything else is shaken.
be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. and the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.
the things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. but i rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at last you have revived your concern for me; indeed, you were concerned before, but you lacked opportunity. not that i speak from want, for i have learned to be content in whatever circumstances i am.
i know how to get along with humble means, and i also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance i have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need.
i can do all things through Him who strengthens me. philippians 4:6-13
i need the peace of God to guard my heart and my mind. right now. i pray this peace also guards you as well and that He is the firm foundation on which your house is built. let Him deal with the faults in our foundations now so that we will stand firm in the shaking to come. He is faithful to use these present trials to refine us, shape us, and draw us to Himself.
charis
