More than a prayer....
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
I am coming off of a very full weekend where I spoke and sang at Acquire the Fire in Amherst, Mass. On the flight home I was looking out the window and watching the sun begin to pour it's colors onto that thin line of horizon and I found myself tearing up and overwhelmed with emotions. I had the oportunity to speak with many young people and even adults after I spoke and sang and one after the other they would ask me to pray with them. Tears would be streaming down faces and stories of broken people longing for restoration from God came at me full on. I embrace this and am humbled by the fact that God even uses me, a broken, cracked person longing for restoration myself, to touch the lives around me. My prayers would be those of asking God to forgive, for God to restore, for God to mend broken hearts and relationships. The weight of it all could smother you if not for the underlining hope that lifted it with each amen. so, at this moment watching the horizon, 38,000 feet above the ground I begin to weep at the thought of the hand that painted the sky being the same hand and arms that wrap around me and love me. These hands that also wrap around and love each and every one of us. I then being to wish I had the ability to DO something other than just pray for people. I have such a strong urge to be back at that arena, armed with ways to help. Just as I am about to become overwhelmed by the reality that I am heading in the other direction and not able to do so, I feel as if God whispers to me..You are my hands and feet. I am taken aback by this. I know this, I sing the song, I speak about it I live it. But it is simple. Even though I am not able to be there in person, other believers are. We need to do MORE than just pray for our friends, our parents, our children, our peers.. we need to BE Jesus to them. I think it is wonderful to pray for people, I know that there is power in prayer. But I think that we sometimes pray for someone or for a situation and then walk away without another thought. What a missed oportuiny to BE Jesus! I think it is time for Christians to not be known by our lack luster, judgmental, hypocritical stereotype. Let’s DO SOMETHING to change that! Let's get off of our backsides and BE Jesus. Take opportunities when they are presented. If a single mom asks for prayer because she is struggling to make ends meet, MEET a NEED! Take her grocery shopping, offer to watch her children for a night. If a teenager is acting out and asking for help with addictions, or maybe they have messed up and feel like no one cares about them.. DO SOMETHING! Take them under your wing and disciple them. Be an accountability partner with them. There are over 3 BILLION people on this planet; we are more than capable to find ONE (at least) to BE JESUS too. I am myself, ashamed to say that I do not practice this on a daily basis. But I want to start a movement a REVOLUTION of ACTION! I want to be known as a follower of Jesus and as one who ACTS (it's a VERB) like Jesus as well.
My prayer today is that I am more than just a prayer, that I am IN ACTION and DOING what God wants me to do.
heather
My prayer today is that I am more than just a prayer, that I am IN ACTION and DOING what God wants me to do.
heather
to all the moms...for the laugh, you are welcome..
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
To start off this Blog I would like to say that this one is for you mommies everywhere.. this is to give you a good laugh. Hope your week goes well and that THIS does not happen to you…. Ahem…
There are many many things in my life that in retrospect were not the wisest of things to do. The funny thing is, for the most part we document these decisions by taking photographs. Not just take the picture.. Oh no, we pose. We go all out. We bust a move, stick out our tongues, bunny ears, funny face the whole sha-bang. I have boxes of pictures of bad choices in my house. The MC Hammer pants one. Oh THIS one is classic, and NO I will NOT be posting any of these. I can just hear “can’t touch this” and see me attempting to go “hammer time” in my 100 different color parachute pants. Oh..Oh.. Oh… Can’t touch this… sorry, had a moment. Then of course there is the whole pegging our pants and rolling them above the ankles…you know, to make room for the 15 pairs of multi-colored socks we adorned before we put on out penny loafers. Which by the way, you put actual pennies, nickels, and if you were amazingly cool dollar bills in them to show off your loafer power. I think it is a resourceful way to keep your lunch money safe. Oh, the memories.. bad choices in clothes. Don’t even get me started on the hair.. WOW. Aqua-net hairspray and hairdryers… at the same time. It is a miracle we all did not have our hair fall out or get burnt off our heads by the nearest open flame. The heights I reached with my bangs were epic. It was as if god himself had parted my hair like the red sea… yes, I have many photos of all these embarrassing things.
All this is to soften the blow of the absolute horror of the picture that my son saw this last weekend. It is really Tim’s fault. He insisted on taking pictures of every single event in our married life. Wedding, first house, first car, first job, first dog, the list is quite long.
So the other day I got our old, old laptop out to transfer all the baby pictures off of it to disk and then “it” happened. My kids of course wanted to come over and see themselves as babies..We were ooing and ahhing over the cuteness factor that the slide show was displaying, I got up to grab my coffee from the kitchen counter and I hear my 6 year old daughter say..WHAT IS THAT?!?!? I turn around slowly and if in the matrix and there it is…in all it’s glory. The BIRTH pictures of Gideon being born. (and I mean BEING BORN) Skye, who will probably be my doctor, starts pointing at things and asking questions. I am scrambling to answer, not wanting to freak out, I mean after all.. it IS part of life. But then I look at Gideon. He is staring at the screen. Jaw almost to the floor. His eyes are so big I can literally see his brain processing the absolute grossness of the picture that like a bad car wreck he can not turn away from. What do I do at this moment? I fast forward the slide show and we end on a positive upbeat picture of a baby and a puppy (that should erase the other picture right?) Needless to say, I am going to watch the pictures we take and view from now on.
There are many many things in my life that in retrospect were not the wisest of things to do. The funny thing is, for the most part we document these decisions by taking photographs. Not just take the picture.. Oh no, we pose. We go all out. We bust a move, stick out our tongues, bunny ears, funny face the whole sha-bang. I have boxes of pictures of bad choices in my house. The MC Hammer pants one. Oh THIS one is classic, and NO I will NOT be posting any of these. I can just hear “can’t touch this” and see me attempting to go “hammer time” in my 100 different color parachute pants. Oh..Oh.. Oh… Can’t touch this… sorry, had a moment. Then of course there is the whole pegging our pants and rolling them above the ankles…you know, to make room for the 15 pairs of multi-colored socks we adorned before we put on out penny loafers. Which by the way, you put actual pennies, nickels, and if you were amazingly cool dollar bills in them to show off your loafer power. I think it is a resourceful way to keep your lunch money safe. Oh, the memories.. bad choices in clothes. Don’t even get me started on the hair.. WOW. Aqua-net hairspray and hairdryers… at the same time. It is a miracle we all did not have our hair fall out or get burnt off our heads by the nearest open flame. The heights I reached with my bangs were epic. It was as if god himself had parted my hair like the red sea… yes, I have many photos of all these embarrassing things.
All this is to soften the blow of the absolute horror of the picture that my son saw this last weekend. It is really Tim’s fault. He insisted on taking pictures of every single event in our married life. Wedding, first house, first car, first job, first dog, the list is quite long.
So the other day I got our old, old laptop out to transfer all the baby pictures off of it to disk and then “it” happened. My kids of course wanted to come over and see themselves as babies..We were ooing and ahhing over the cuteness factor that the slide show was displaying, I got up to grab my coffee from the kitchen counter and I hear my 6 year old daughter say..WHAT IS THAT?!?!? I turn around slowly and if in the matrix and there it is…in all it’s glory. The BIRTH pictures of Gideon being born. (and I mean BEING BORN) Skye, who will probably be my doctor, starts pointing at things and asking questions. I am scrambling to answer, not wanting to freak out, I mean after all.. it IS part of life. But then I look at Gideon. He is staring at the screen. Jaw almost to the floor. His eyes are so big I can literally see his brain processing the absolute grossness of the picture that like a bad car wreck he can not turn away from. What do I do at this moment? I fast forward the slide show and we end on a positive upbeat picture of a baby and a puppy (that should erase the other picture right?) Needless to say, I am going to watch the pictures we take and view from now on.
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