Category: Ministry

Have you ever had a season that was really hard?  Out of your own capacity or ability?

What a silly question. Of course, you have. We all have. It may look different for you than it does your neighbor, but life can be hard. Circumstances can stretch you, change you, refine you, and grow you. They can teach you, reveal to you, and even heal you.

Some seasons we find ourselves waiting and others we find ourselves trying to catch up and make sense of what’s happening around us.

For me and my husband, this has been a season of all the above. We live in Minnesota and are weeks away from finishing our MA programs at the same time. Yes, we went back to school at the same time. Yes, I know, it seems a bit crazy. But God. So here we are.

In addition to being full-time students, we are mom and dad to our littles, husband and wife to each other, and lead in our jobs that we love. Then, you can add in the “life” part of it. Life is busy.

In typical Minnesota fashion I would love to tell you a story about weather. However, it goes beyond the weather. You ready?

Last week was 85 degrees and sunny. I was so excited and hopeful. In the midst of the crazy season, spring in Minnesota finally brought sunshine. Friday, the neighbors were all outside and the kids were playing. I was ready to get rid of the weeds in my front garden because I could see the green from the plants peeking through. I wanted to put the deck furniture and of course, the kids wanted to set up the trampoline. Spring had sprung, and I was calling out summer, apparently premature. Thank goodness, my husband was on the same page. He made it all possible. Ha!

Then came Sunday. I woke up, looked out my window. And more snow…and it just kept snowing, all day.

It was MID April… Snow was covering the trampoline and the deck furniture. Even the ducks appeared to have a better response than me as they seemed to continue to swim unbothered. If I take this beyond my response to the weather… there are seasons I find myself in a response of full surrender in faith.

This can often be when things are going well, known, and smooth. The path or timeline feels clear, or my prayers are answered. Or shall I say, the weather is on my side.

And yet when things are less than comfortable, a bit more challenging, or unknown, or maybe I am experiencing loss, it can be easy to respond from what I am experiencing or perceive not possible instead of what I know to be true because of who Jesus says he is.

I was recently reading John 11. In the past, when I had read this story, I read it from the lens of the miracle Jesus did in raising his friend Lazarus from the dead. This time, as I read through line by line, something else stuck out to me. I read it differently. For some context, in John 11, Jesus hears that his friend Lazarus is really sick. After a few days he and his disciples made their way to Lazarus. Now remember, by this time, Lazarus was already dead. When Jesus was close, Martha, Lazarus’s sister, saw they were coming and she ran out to talk with Jesus and she said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” (vs21)

Jesus talks with Martha and tells her truth about who He is. Then, in John 11:25, Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?

When Jesus asks this question to Martha, it is important to remember that she is responding to Jesus amidst her grief and disappointment. In her eyes, her brother had been sick and died four days prior. She was hoping Jesus would have made it earlier and in time to heal him but instead he was late and now Lazarus lies in a tomb.

Jesus tells her that he (Lazarus) will live again. Martha was thinking Jesus was referring to life in heaven, but Jesus had so much more. Martha’s response from faith to this is what I want to continue to live from no matter the season.

In verse 27, Martha said to him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.”

Martha’s response is one of belief and faith. She was holding onto the truths of Jesus even when she could not see, understand, or make sense of it all.

This is what got me, friend. When I begin to imagine how Martha was feeling. Struck with grief and sadness and probably frustration and anger for Jesus coming too late. Her brother had already been dead for four days and Jesus was not there in time to save him from death.

And yet, she responded amid her circumstance, in faith.

Friends, what would it look like if we believed the words Jesus said. Knowing and living from this no matter the circumstances, that he, Jesus, is the resurrection and life.

It is easy when the conditions change to lose perspective on what we know to be true or even question of God sees us.

Would we respond in faith when…

When it is 85 and sunny? When we wake up to snow? When things are going well, health is strong, and calendars have margin? When the outcome is not what we expected, or maybe there is loss, sadness, death, illness, challenges, and roadblocks?

My encouragement for each of us today is this… let us be a people that reminds one another of true perspective not on momentary circumstances or conditions.

Let us be a people who respond from faith.

I believe God can and is doing more than we can ever imagine. Let us cling to the hope of Jesus, not because it feels easy but because we can hold to it in certainty even when everything around us feels difficult, unknown, or even a little snowy outside beyond when it should be.

It’s not what we perceive to be possible but rather what we know to be true because of who Jesus says he is.

Do you ever have days where they feel long and you find yourself wanting to dash into leading into bedtime, to move toward the next task that needs to be tended to?

If I’m honest, that can be my natural default. Then, moments like tonight, I went through nighttime routines, and I hugged my oldest a bit tighter. I think it was even more for me than her.

She responded to my hug by saying, “mommy, your the best mommy”. I responded, with a chuckle and a bit of self doubt under my breath, “oh Lilah, there is so many ways I could be a better mommy”. She responded quickly and with a boldness in her voice, “mommy, you are the best mommy just as you are”.

She meant it, from the bottom of her heart, and it showed through the way she smiled at me from the corners of her eyes. She believes that with her whole being. She stopped me in my tracks, brought tears to my eyes and reminded me, gently, I am enough as I am.

Not sure who needs this tonight, but I sure did, and I didn’t even know it. Let me remind you, YOU, yes you, are enough, just as you are. #lessonfromachild

The enemy would love nothing more than to confuse, discourage or lead you off track. His desire grows greater when he sees you living in alignment of the plan and purpose God has for you. This can come in attacks, single-handed or in multiple, one after another. It can leave you disoriented, feeling your feet slipping beneath you. I too have been there.

In some ways, the past few years have been tough. Each step I would take closer to continued alignment of Gods plan, would bring attacks. In the loss and grief of a second miscarriage, relational strain, or in a body that felt as though it was failing me as I was unexpectedly diagnosed with Type 1 – late adult onset. These were just a few of the things during an already exhausting COVID season in a global pandemic that God turned for good. And friend, that is just my story, and my season. You have one too, and it matters. All of it.

The good news friend is that there were also so many beautiful moments. We have a choice. Instead of letting the attacks of life take us down, lets together let them grow us closer to God, expand us in our faith, and build us in a life of resilience. Let us choose to recognize the beauty in our midst. Living a life of resilience does not mean that we are numb or free from the feeling of pain or disappointment, but rather, it means that we don’t have to stay there. We have the intentional choice to be made deep within us to stay, or to move through, building stronger forward, in the hope of Jesus. God is with you. God is for you. God is working. Even when we don’t feel it.

Let us not get caught up in the problems or circumstances of this world, but rather, let us battle like a soldier of Christ Jesus. Growing and living in resilience, not from our strength but His.

Let’s choose to live into the fullness that God offers, choosing to see the way He has worked through each hardship and aligned our steps for His good. It isn’t easy. It is often hard. But yet, so fulfilling to look back and see the work that He has done.

He provides in ways only He can, and has moved me through the grief of another lost child, the restoration of relationships, and helped me discover what it means to live with T1D. He can and will provide a way for you too. This I believe.

Wherever you find yourself, know that there is a battle worth fighting. You are not alone. Take heart.

“Take with me your share of hardship [passing through the difficulties which you are called to endure], like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier in active service gets entangled in the [ordinary business] affairs of civilian life; [he avoids them] so that he may please the one who enlisted him to serve” – 2 Timothy 2:3-4 [AMP]