Bridge to Peace

A day at the beach before a thunderstorm rolled in, opened my eyes to how the church could be when we live in unity. 

The clouds hung low, dark and threatening. But, a light burned bright. Right in the middle of the beach.  

Families side-by-side with different hues of skin. Enjoying the handiwork of our Creator God who makes all things new.

Prayer changes things.

And some things need changing.

We tend to congregate with the brothers and sisters who look like us. Worship like us. Do church like us.

But living like this, we've been separated from the greater community of the church. 

We are broken, fragmented. 

We need to realize our unity in Christ.

All of us who call ourselves Christians have been united together in Christ. By His sacrifice on the cross, the great divide has been filled in. 

Whatever keeps us apart. Be it by language, ethnicity, nationality, gender, race. 

We are all one in Christ Jesus.

As we cling to Him, we can connect to each other.

And love our neighbors.

In these tumultuous days, may we turn our eyes to Him who makes all things new and experience heartfelt repentance and real revival in the church.

For in unity, His light shines brightest for all to see the salvation of God in Christ Jesus.

"As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet,

"The voice of one crying in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough places shall become level ways, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.'" 

Luke 3:4-6 

"This Little Light of Mine" Charleston, S.C.

Steps to Peace in Grief

Jesus paid it all,

All to Him I owe,

Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow. 

~Elvina M. Hall, 1865

***

I don’t know if I've always traveled the best way through grief, but the Lord taught me many things along the journey. I learned more about God, myself, and others, and we have choices to make in how we will react to all of life’s difficulties. The following steps are some choices I made on my own journey. And those choices lead to peace.

***

Steps to Peace in Grief:

1. Focus on the character of Christ in the gospels.  Seeking to know Him more fully will form us more into His likeness.

2. Look back and grieve—everything that has broken your heart, and ask Christ to reveal Himself to you in those times.
 
3. Turn to Christ and trust Him with your past, present, and eternity, for “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever (Hebrews 13:8).”

4. Believe that when you are at a disadvantage, you are blessed, because it's a chance to see God come through for you.

5. Be thankful that Christ Jesus has redeemed you—every part of you, past,  present, and future, it all matters to Him.  He is faithful to forgive you and cleanse you of all unrighteous thoughts, feelings, or deeds (1 John 1:9).
 
6. Rest on Christ, the Rock, whose promise of salvation is a free gift. You don't have to be "good enough" to be loved and accepted by God. The Lord Jesus gave His life to rescue us from darkness and bring us into His family.

7. Immerse yourself in worship and sing songs of both lament and praise, which can stir your heart to hope again.

8. Rejoice that because of Christ, our names are written in heaven (Luke 10:20).

9. Live for your Father's smile.

10. Persevere when you feel like giving up. God has a special place, purpose, and work for you to do in His Kingdom.
 
11. Remember you are precious in the sight of God.

12. Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord. The greatest in the Kingdom of heaven is like a little child.

13. Love others even in your pain.

14. Be confident that the things that overwhelm you are the very things you can trust in the Lord to give you His strength to overcome (2 Corinthians 12:9).

15. Trust in the Lord to protect you from evil. Suffering is a time when you are most vulnerable. (1 Peter 5:8,9)

16. Don't be afraid to ask for help. The Lord works through His people. You don't have to go through grief alone.

17. Longing, seeking, finding, longing…it’s like a cycle that will end when we see Jesus face-to-face. Until then, stay the course.

18. Jesus longs for me even more than I long for Him. He has known me before the creation of the world. He gave His life for me. He’s preparing a place for me, and He’s waiting for me with a love that is higher than the highest mountain, wider than the widest sky, deeper than the deepest ocean, and longer than the longest road.

19. In this world, we have a lot to grieve, mourn, and wail about, but we must long for the day when we can be in the safest place of all—safe in Jesus’ arms. 

20. When you look your greatest hurts straight in the face, turn your eyes upon Jesus.

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,

Look full in His wonderful face.

And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,

In the light of His glory and grace.

~Helen H. Lemmel, 1922

The Trouble at Wal-Mart

Broken.  That's how my heart felt, sitting in the urgent care clinic with my baby girl with a swollen finger, possibly broken.

"What's wrong with your little one?" asked the receptionist.

"Minivan door.  It shut on her finger." Feeling dejected, I looked down at the clipboard and finished filling it out. Picking up my toddler, I returned the clipboard to the receptionist and sat to wait until our name was called. She sat on my lap and held her hand up with fingers extended. Her index finger on her right hand was twice as large as the one on the left.

It all had happened so fast. We were at Wal-Mart, just baby and me. I grabbed my purse and went to the other side of the van to get her out of her car seat. Sliding the the door open, I reached over to hit the automatic lock button, so it would lock up when I shut it.

After taking the baby out of her seat, I yanked on the door to slide it shut. As I turned to go, my daughter reached out her hand. Before I could stop it or pull her away, the door shut on her finger.

I was ready for an avalanche of tears, but she didn't cry at all.

Maybe the finger wasn't stuck in the door. A little tug. Oh, yes it was. My daughter began to cry. All the doors were locked. The baby's finger was stuck, and so was I. My key-less entry button on my keys didn't work, and there was only one way to open the doors once locked—the driver's side door—on the other side of the minivan.

My heart was racing. I couldn't calm down. I couldn’t think. I breathed in through my nose for a count of seven and slowly exhaled out of my mouth. I needed to be calm, to stay in control. I had to think. But, what could I do? She was stuck. There was nothing I could do. I couldn’t put her down. Where her finger was pinned in the door, she couldn’t reach the ground.

Deep within me, came a cry, louder than I thought I possible. "Help, help!  My baby!  Please, somebody, help me!"

Out of the corner of my eye I saw a man running toward me.  He was a young man with skin the color of brown sugar. I handed him my keys. "Please. My baby's finger is stuck ... I can't unlock the door on this side."

The man sped to the other side of the van and shuffled with the keys until he found the right one and tried it. I shook my head no. The door was still locked. He went into the van and manually unlocked it.

The door came free. I held my baby close. The young man handed me the keys as I was breathing a prayer of thanks. He smiled at me, then he ran off. I didn't even get his name or get to thank him. The way he sped to my rescue and then raced away, I wondered if he was an angel.

By now, my daughter's finger was swelling and so was her crying. Back into the van.  Forget Wal-Mart, we needed to go to the urgent care clinic. On the way there, my adrenaline level was at an all-time high. Little condemning thoughts kept on antagonizing me. 

It's all your fault...you're a terrible mother...she'll be scarred for life...

Then I remembered who I am. As a go to for when I’m struggling, I had been compiling all the new names that God gives us when we trust in Christ. Those names returned to me now:

You are Chosen, Accepted, Daughter of the King…

Breathing a sigh of relief, I parked the car at the clinic. Self-contempt doesn't have a chance with a heart resting in God's grace.

At the clinic, the doctor asked if our car had a door sensor that stopped it when it detected something in the way.

"No. No sensor." 

More condemning thoughts trickled in, but this time about others. Car companies care more about money than people's safety...big business is just corrupt like that...Aw, I shouldn't go there either. It would only steal my peace. Anyway, not all minivans had that sensor and ours was an older model. 

And, what about the guy who helped me unlock the door?  He probably wouldn't have been the first person I would have asked for help. I prefer asking a person who is in uniform. It feels safer. But, the person I least expected was my hero. And it turned out that my daughter’s finger wasn’t broken, and as she rested against my chest, she seemed to have recovered better than me. I was still panicky and unable to settle completely for some time.

The thing is, we're all broken people, living in a broken world. We'll never be in a place where something in our lives doesn't need fixing. And, though it seems like we're in control sometimes, we're really not.

If we walk by faith, not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7), knowing that the Lord is with us and there to help us, then eventually we will have peace. Sometimes right away, and other times, we have to wait for it.

One day Christ will return, and He will make all things new (Revelation 21). He will restore everything that has been broken in this world.

Until then, we can wait and rest in His grace, releasing control to His holy Sovereign will and thanking Him for the little things like an unsung hero at Wal-Mart and soft bones that didn't break.