What We Can Handle

Has someone ever told you, "It's OK.  G0d won't give you more than you can handle"?  I've heard that often and I want to say something about that statement:

It's a lie.

It's something said in hard times when people want to be encouraging and don't know what else to say.

The truth is, however, that it's a concept of misquoted Scripture.  I Cor. 10:13 says, "No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And G0d is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it."  It's saying that we won't be given more temptation than we can handle.  Not more life experience, blows, tragedy, heartbreak, questions without answers, etc.  And truly terrible stuff happens all the time to really awesome people.

"G0d won't give you more than you can handle," is a statement that invokes guilt.  Because if I'm not coping with something that He's allowed, then I'm somehow to blame.  I'm not good enough, faithful enough, strong enough-----or something.

I recently read 2 Corinthians and was caught up in the vivid picture of humanity that I'd never noticed before there.  Things like:

"We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure, and we thought we would never live through it."  (1:8) 

"And who is adequate for such a task as this?" (2:16)

"Our hearts ache..." (6:16)

"...there was no rest for us. We faced conflict from every direction, with battles on the outside and fear on the inside." (7:5)

Really?  Wow!  If Paul can feel that way it's OK for me to be human, too!

It takes courage and makes us face realities that aren't easy to ask the hard 'Why G0d?' questions.

"It is easy to spout trite Christian platitudes designed to make people feel better with bumper-sticker theology.  But insipid axioms do little in the face of the actual brokenness of the world." 

-Nate Pyle

Steve arrived back in NZ early Sunday morning (Yay!!!).  Later that day he told me a story that's been haunting my mind since.  

FS has a drop in center in the most heavily used part of the sex lanes.  It's a place of fellowship where women still in the trade can come in, hang out, maybe get their nails painted, but the concept is to create relationship and to tell them about the freedom available to them through FS if they choose.  Since there are more and more girls from Nepal in the area, a young women who speaks Nepalese now works there to communicate with them.  

A couple of weeks ago, a girl of about 16 quietly slipped into the center and sat just inside the door watching.  She finally started asking questions and when the Nepalese speaker referred to her Faith, the girl started singing Chr1stian songs in her mother tongue. Turns out that the girl who was raised in a Chr1stian home had been snatched off the street and trafficked when she was 12.  For the past four years she's been literally locked in a brothel and raped every day, a number of times a day.  Only recently has her madam allowed her to occasionally leave the room and that day she had told the madam she needed to go purchase something and came to the drop in center that she had heard about from another girl instead.  

But after that, for now, she had to go back to the brothel.

What do you do with that?  How can things like that happen to a girl who loves Him?  You certainly wouldn't tell her that she 'won't be given more than she can handle,' would you?!

We all, in varying circumstances and degrees, are definitely taken at some point beyond what we can handle.  But there's hope!  The beginning of 2 Corinthians says:

"In fact, we expected to die.  But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on G0d, who raises the dead. "  (vs.9)

I don't understand why He does many things or allows what He does.  I certainly don't have the answers.  But I know that when we are beyond what we can handle ourselves, THAT'S the place where we truly find Him and 'rely' on Him like never before.  And ONLY on Him.  

And we GROW.............!

Known

I've met a lot of people in my life. And while I very much enjoy that, there's something precious about spending time with someone who already knows you.  Who you don't have to explain everything about your life to, who knows your likes and dislikes, your passions, your fears, your family.  Someone who already knows that you tend to walk into lampposts or stumble over curbs when you're distracted.  Who knows that you sometimes snort when you laugh and what you look like without mascara after you cry.

It's a beautiful thing to be KNOWN.

I got to see a close friend of many years from Fiji a couple of months ago.  We hadn't seen each other in at least 4 years or communicated much at all in that time, yet the few precious hours together flew. We know many things about each other and have been through many things together. 

I didn't realize how much in my somewhat transient life I missed really being KNOWN.

What an amazing thing it is that we have a Creator who not only made us but takes the time to KNOW us.  And how much that is an expression of His incredible love.

When Hagar was being persecuted by Sarai for simply doing what her mistress had asked her to do, she ran away to the wilderness.  She was met there in a very personal way with a very special message and ended up giving the L0rd a new name, "You are the G0d who sees me......." (Gen. 16:13)

One of my favorite verses!  To be really SEEN.  KNOWN.

The link to the video below is an amazing tribute to Him who sees us, knows us, loves............

Known and Loved (The Woman at the Well)

To be known is to be loved and to love is to be known!

Easter

It's a time of the year that's usually pretty busy if you're in active service.  It's been really nice to have a quiet, contemplative Easter weekend so far this year! 

I very much admire the attitude in this recent quote:

“We need to go out to the outskirts where there is suffering, bloodshed, blindness that longs for sight, and prisoners in thrall to many evil masters… It is not in soul-searching or constant introspection that we encounter the Lord.”    

                                                   - the new Pope

We need more voices like this in the world!  But there's a balance as well. Personally I've suppressed my inner 'Mary' too much in recent years because of the need around me, so I'm learning the 'better part' again.  (I had a talk the other day with someone about how sitting at His feet like Mary did was actually an active role since it was the role of the disciple, but that's another conversation.) 

Balance.  It's been wonderful to be in the frame of mind to contemplate His sacrifice.  The agony and the love like no other.  

I've been working on a cross-stitch for years now of J3sus The Shepherd sitting with lambs around His feet.  It's one of those projects that I either work on quite a bit or put away for long periods in between.  I pulled it out yesterday for the first time in a while and even though it's got a few 'age' spots and places where the thread has bled into the unstitched part, it's worth finishing.  The subject matter always makes me think and I remember the things that I've thought about, prayed about, and stages of life as I've stitched.  

We need times of contemplation as well.

It's interesting how the circumstances of life can also challenge us and be the catalyst for good introspection.  For example, I haven't seen my husband in two and a half months.  I love him and have been longing for him.  I look forward to the times we get to interact online and on Skype, but can't wait until a week from today (!) when I actually get to be in his presence.

It's made me compare that to my Priority Relationship in life.  How much do I long for Him?  How much do I ache for HIS Presence?  Do I stop and just sit in it each day?  And what a privilege it is to have it available!!!

His Presence.  The beauty that is the result of Easter.  

Brought near to us.............
Drawn by my beautiful, 11 year-old, legally blind niece.  Amazing!

The song that won't leave my head today.....  (Click on link to hear and shut your eyes to listen---it's a good one!)  It's nothing that we've done!

Rain

While New Zealand usually has a lot of rain and unpredictable weather, this summer has been an absolutely amazing summer at the beach on the north island. No need to look at the forecast before leaving the house----it's just beautiful sunshine!

New Zealand relies heavily on dairy farming, however, and the last few weeks have been really hard on them.  The soil on the farms is dry and cracked and they're running out of food and water for their herds.  Since a lot of the country relies on rainwater tanks for their household supply, it's been affecting the human population as well.  

But this weekend it began to rain.  A lovely, long soak of a rain.  Not a huge storm with buckets of water that would result in flash flooding on the hard earth.

The ground has a ways to go before it's lush again, but this morning the air is fresher and the birds are singing like they haven't for weeks now.  An infusion of life to the land.

Sometimes our hearts feel like this.  Dry, cracked, desperate for the 'water' of His touch. 

It's at times like this that we long for Him "like a dry and parched land where there is no water." (Ps. 63:1) We want to be watered right then and there.  Fully drenched.  Restored.

But just like the land our hearts take time.  Too much at once will just run off and be wasted.  What we really need is the gentle soaking rain of His Presence that will prepare our 'soil' for more.  An infusion of life to our hearts.......

Update:  Steve has been back at FS working for seven weeks now.  Things are going really well. We're missing him heaps in NZ but only three more weeks until we see him!  Both girls are back in Uni and I'm homeschooling the boys.

Merry Christmas!!!

"Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it."  ~Helen Keller

Hope.  A tiny baby.  Born not in a palace to a king, but to an unmarried, peasant girl in a dirty, smelly stable.  Announced to the lowest of the low----shepherds.  By angels!  

Illogical at best.

"But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong."   I Cor. 1:27

To show HIS power.  And that He cares about the least of these.  He's in the small stuff.

"...and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn." Luke 2:7

Emmanuel.  God WITH us.  GOD with us.  God with US.  

Evil will be destroyed.  Suffering will cease.  Wrongs will be made right.  And crying will end.  

Because of one wee babe.  The HOPE of Christmas!

When winter has passed....

It's Spring in New Zealand.  The winter has passed and new life is popping up all around.  There have been lots of rainy, gloomy days but brilliant, sunny ones as well.  Like the morning currently shining through my window.

Even the wilderness and desert will be glad in those days.

The wasteland will rejoice and blossom with spring crocuses.

Yes, there will be an abundance of flowers and of singing and joy!

The deserts will become as green as the mountains of Lebanon, 

as lovely as Mount Carmel of the plain of Sharon.

There the Lord will display his glory, 

the splendor of our G0d.

With this news, strengthen those who have tired hands,

and encourage those who have weak knees.

Say to those with fearful hearts,

"Be strong, and do not fear, 

for your G0d is coming to destroy your enemies.

He is coming to save you."

And when he comes, he will open the eyes of the blind 

and unplug the ears of the deaf.

The lame will leap like a deer, 

and those who cannot speak will sing for joy!

Springs will gush forth in the wilderness, 

and streams in the wasteland.

The parched ground will become a pool,

and springs of water will satisfy the thirsty land.

Marsh grass and reeds and rushes will flourish 

where desert jackals once lived.     

And a great road will go through that once deserted land.

It will be named the Highway of Holiness.

-Is. 35:1-8

I LOVE the mental picture that brings!  Beauty out of barren land.  Healing out of a wasteland.  HOPE.....

Last night I heard Casting Crown's new rendition of one of their much loved songs.  And it reminded me that this..........

.......doesn't happen without the rain.  And the storm.  

Just like in the garden of my (and your!) soul.

Days like today make me smile. But they're all the more brilliant because of the winter and the barren days that have passed.  Yet today the birds are singing!!!

Now listen to this!  

Responsibility and Hope

Steve's still where we usually live and has been really enjoying the time.  He's hosted a couple of great teams as well.  The current one from one of our supporting fellowships in the US sent skilled tradesmen who have been giving large portions of FS a face lift with a coat of paint.  Because they can work extra quickly they're painting walls in high traffic areas that have never been painted before.

Five new women have recently started training as well!

I heard a wonderful story the other day about how a large retail store in the city donated very slightly damaged but new cots/cribs to the nursery/creche.  That's really a first since the general feeling in the city is to avoid contact with people in our area.  The store wanted photos to show their employees so one of the women who has in the past few years taken a position of leadership in the office took the photos to the most flash mall in town so they could see.  This is a place that it's surreal to walk into because of the contrast between what's inside and what's in the city around it.  It made me smile to hear how excited this woman was when she came back at how welcoming the staff was and how pleased they were to see the photos.  This is a women who before she started work at FS wouldn't have been welcome to even walk through the doors of the mall........

Change!!!  And now she can hold her head up high.

On the flip side Steve says there are more women 'standing in line' on the main road nearby than he's ever seen before.

I've been thinking lately about how in ways life at FS has 'ruined' us----because now there's a lot that we know.  I worked before Hannah was born at a jewelry store for a number of years and to this day still notice jewelry without meaning to.  After time at FS I notice women that I wouldn't have before.  I know who is looking for a 'customer' on the streets even though she's not scantily dressed and there's not a brothel nearby.

That translates to the streets of New Zealand where I am at the moment.  I find myself googling the awareness of trafficking here and asking questions about the welfare of women.

William Wilberforce, who was instrumental in abolishing slavery in England said:

“You may choose to look the other way but you can never say again that you did not know.” 

Now I know.  And with that comes responsibility.

That's pretty daunting at times......

I don't like seeing more darkness than I used to be aware of.  There's a lot of shadow in this world.  And I don't like wrestling with those 'why' questions that arise.

That's why I love verses like this:

"On this mountain he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations; he will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign L0RD will wipe away the tears from all faces...."    Is. 25:7-8

It's not forever.

We all sing things like, "Break my heart for what breaks yours.  Everything I am for your Kingdom's cause."  And we mean it.  But that doesn't mean that it's easy to always walk it out.

I love being part of FS because while there's darkness all around it's a place of hope as well!

(Someone else's blog I read today that meant a lot to me:  Why I will not say I never made a sacrifice )