When You don't know where to start... Start with one.

She was drunk.

 I could see our breath like a mist in the cold winter’s night as we sat outside the church building. People passionately lifting up praises to the Lord echoed out of the churches open windows. My rear end was starting to move from sore to numb as the chill sank into my bones from sitting on the ground outside. She was anxiously glancing back and forth. She told me again she should not be here she was “drrrrunk”. She rolled her “R’s” as they do in the Afrikaans language. My heart went out to her.

We sat together there in the cold damp night, waiting for her to sober up or just gain the confidence to go inside the building. I was silently praying for her and she was feeling nervous about the church people’s reactions to her being drunk. I reassured her of our love for her. She repeated again that she should not be here, yet made no move to leave. 

She had followed me all the way up the winding dark streets from where she and her friends had been partying. All the while we kept chatting lightly as we walked.  She repeatedly told me that she should go back to the party, and yet we continued walking and chatting together as we headed up the hilly road towards the church. God was propelling her. I smiled as I watched her keep pace next to me.

God had placed her on my heart from the first day she arrived at the park where our mission’s team was working.  I spotted her standing towards the back of the ever growing numbers of teenagers and children who were coming out to the site. With her arms crossed, her face cynical and smug, she would stand and observe us. If you got to close, she side stepped you. If you reached out to give her a friendly pat on the arm, she made fists and darted. She smirked when we spoke and made fun of my American accent, but God nudged me and said,

”This one, love and pray especially for this one.”

It’s always amazing how God can place a love inside of us for someone we do not yet know personally. Or when He places a love in our hearts for someone who does what they can to be rude or dodge us like the plague.

 We shared some of the horror stories from our lives on that chilly evening. She allowed me to share with her how God brought love and healing into mine. We prayed together and still keep in touch. She still has an abundance of hardships to deal with in life, but I am confident of this.

God loves her. That she is beautiful and valued in God’s eyes whether or not she feels valued in her family. I pray for her protection and for God to guide her each week. I pray for healing for her heart and the strength to stand for what is true. I also pray that one day I can see her and give her a big hug again, I even long to hear her giggling as I try once again to pronounce her name correctly.

There are many of us who are in need of God’s love, forgiveness, grace and freedom, whether here in the States or halfway across the world. They are hiding behind tough exteriors, towering walls built from years of broken trust and open wounds, yet dying inside for someone who will care and be patient enough to love them out of from behind their walls.  

I have heard from quite a few people how they feel overwhelmed by the needs in our world. A friend of mine shared she did not know where to start and if she could truly make a difference. 

This brings me to this week’s challenge. Consider this phrase,

“Do for one what you wish you could do for all.”  

Friends, if you relate to this then, could you please pray and ask for the Lord to help you to see the “one” in your life? 

Couldn’t we all start there with just one person?

Ask the lord to help you to see the ways you can encourage and bless them and then do it. Don't think too long about it. Do not put it off till next week. Just do it.

Maybe it is someone in your neighborhood, a co-worker, or a person you have met where you volunteer. Perhaps God is leading you to support a child through Compassion International or World Vision. I encourage you to take the first step today and ask the Lord, “Who is your one?”

Then remember the words Bob Goff so aptly coined, 

“Love Does”. 

1 Corinthians 13:1-3

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Matthew 22:37-40

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

99 Balloons and Unfinished Stories...

If you watch the video, I kid you not tears will fall, and yet it's beautiful. The love that is displayed here is amazing in it's depth and purity. Oh that all the sweet children could know this love. Could experience it's sweetness and acceptance. 



When Dan King of Bibledude.net showed it to us and asked if some of us would be willing to write an, "Unfinished Story" to help support these beautiful parents and their ministry I remember thinking, "Of course!" (And then I ran to get a tissue for my tears.)

And yet, when I sat down to write one of our unfinished stories not one of them seemed quite right. I thought I would share about our different miscarriages, or the times I was in the hospital and doctors offices while they tried to figure out what in the world was wrong with me now. Maybe even about when my  energetic and spunky daughter suddenly developed a debilitating auto-immune illness for 8 months...

Again not one of them seemed quite right.

Then one night sitting in one of our teen girl's small groups, God brought this one back to mind. 

In the Searching I Discover I am Found. 

It's short and to the point. Some of you may not understand it and that is okay my friends, but I have quite a few friends who have experienced this in some degree or another. Some of you reading this may know it all to well. My heart goes out to each and every one of you.

I am grateful, so very grateful that God loves us so intently and deeply that we can be called His son's and daughters.

I pray today you know this my friends, 

1 John 3:1

"See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!"

Romans 8:38-39

"For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,  neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

For more information on their story and ministry visit, 
The atypical life blog.



Sharing this week with, Inspire Me Mondays!

On the Wings of Prayer and a Mocha... or the importance of Inviting Someone into Your Mess.

This was written previously. I was not sure that I was even going to share it, but now I hope it blesses you. We are not perfect beings and yet we strive so hard for this image. 

In crying out for prayer I did not expect the answer the Lord decided to give me. I almost missed the beautiful blessing because I was hiding away in fear of what others might think. 

I pray this encourages you to cry out to God and a trusted friend quickly when you are struggling. Don't buy the myth that you can handle this all alone. I pray that God sends a trusted someone to you, that you can invite into your mess too. Hope is on the way my friends.

-Heather

“Oh goodness, I was doing better for a bit, but today I am a total crank. Need some prayers for a better attitude.”

I fired off the text in a rush. My brow remained furrowed...

I think there is a permanent crease there now from the last few months.

Lately, my eyes need tooth picks to keep them open. I feel like I constantly squint and not just from site issues, but from the bleary eyed frustration of struggling against the dark and gloomy thoughts that seem to be plaguing me lately...

So I fired off the text. A cry for prayer. I recognized the signs of depression that were knock knock knocking on my door again and I knew I couldn't handle this battle alone.

Been there. Done that. Failed.

She answered quickly and reciprocated the feeling.

In a single moment the Lord ushered in grace, hope, and a feeling of communion that gently whispered,

“You are not alone.”

You see the enemy wants us that way. He wants our vision tunneled by the hopelessness of looking down and inward and losing site of the hope and light that is found by looking up and outward.

Oh the blessings of sweet company. Now, I knew I wasn't fighting this battle alone anymore.

I awoke the next morning still feeling worn out. Why even get dressed yet? I wandered through my home with thoughts of guilt and frustration pestering me.

I did a daily tango between, “I am so exhausted... How does my house become such a wreck in just 3 days?” to the crushing guilt in realizing yet again, “Why in the world am I so depressed, when I know I am INCREDIBLY BLESSED?!”

Grumble, grumble...you get the idea.

And then there was an interruption to my pity party saga...

A literal “Knock, knock, knock.” came from the front door.

I froze.

Someone was at my door? I wasn't expecting anyone. I mean especially not in my lovely, and hilarious, state of wreckage.

Hair = Unbrushed and sticking out in lovely formations

Pajamas = Check... Yep, still there.

Dishes = Piled high in my sink. UGH!

Table = Spread with my kids school books and papers...papers now floating down to the floor.

Floor = A splendid mix of K-nex, My Little Ponies, and (Le gasp) a few Cheerios left from breakfast, to boot.

Oh, the horror.

So I just stood there, frozen in my kitchen.

My kids staring at me with questioning looks. (Yes my sweet darlings, your momma is hiding in the kitchen and she is a mess.)

My thoughts circling,

“It must be a door to door salesman...Or those friendly Mormons have come back... I can wait them out.“ (I was in a sad state. I know.)

After what seemed like an eternity of waiting, (Ahem... Reality? Three minutes tops.) a text pinged my phone.

“Are you there?”

A dear sweet friend was in the neighborhood. She was surprising me with a mocha and a hug.

Sheepishly I shuffled my embarrassed butt to the door where she stood with a beautiful smile full of warmth and love.

I stood there a disheveled and mortified wreck.

But then gloriously, God broke through my introspective grumbling.

Suddenly I didn't care about “me” anymore.

I invited her into my mess.

While our kids played, we shared.

She listened. Like treasured gifts she offered me sweet grace and acceptance, instead of the judgment I feared.

And those wonderful gifts have lingered...

Offered on the wings of prayers and a mocha, I received a little more clarity and energy that day.

And gratefully, each day these are returning to my heart.

Bit by bit... Peeking through the cold winter hardened soil and growing upward again.

Joy is breaking through my clouds and that blasted tunnel has opened to the light of Truth.

And for this, I thank you, my sweet, sweet friends. You were God's hands and feet in my life that week.

This is my prayer in thanks for you all. (Taken from the words of Paul.)

Philippians 1: 3-5, 9-11, Ephesians 3:14-21

I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart...

And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.

For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name.

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. 

And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

Joining with these lovely places Inspire Me Mondays, Wednesday's Word,

And this is Where my heart breaks...Part 2. there is hope.

Sticks and Stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me…

Oh I used to sing that little ditty, but oh mama... It was not true.

I have scars from words that have lasted far longer than the bruises and scrapes I got into as a child.

I have been sharing about the damage that labels can have in our lives. This stemmed from an over night youth girls only event that we recently had at our church. If you feel a bit lost while reading this, it might help if you read the previous post, "And this is Where my heart breaks..."

I have a confession to make…

Each time I stare at these blasted stones with their crushing words of condemnation my eyes begin to tear up. 

Each one of these stones represents a person who is living under its chains and bondage.

I find myself holding each stone and praying,

 “Dear God let this one know she is loved.

Let her know she is wanted. 

That her past failures do not mean she is destined to fail forever.

Let this precious daughter know she is worth our time, our love, and efforts."

Can you imagine these being the defining labels in your life?

Have you been there? Do you remember when?

I do.

And my heart breaks and my soul cries out,

“Who will advocate for them?

Who will defend their worth?

Who will stand in the gap?”

You?

Me?

I mean we can try, but the the bill to be paid is too big for just you and me my friends.

Except there is someone.

I know Him, and believe me when I say He gets it... In fact He's has been there.

His friends left him. They didn’t stick around when the chips began to fall and the pressure hit. When the people yelled false accusations at him...

 His friends weren't there to defend his honor.

When he was being beaten and whipped, mocked and spit upon...

 While people yelled for his death his friends hid in the shadows and watched in fear. Some claimed they didn’t even know him.

As the skin on his back was ripped away by the glass and metal barbs connected to the end of the Roman Guard's whip, he held firm.

When the crown with piercing thorns more than an inch long was driven into the flesh around his head. He kept each of us in locked in His heart.

When they threw the cross upon his back with wounds gaping open down to the very bones, he soldiered on seeing each of our faces before him.

As the spikes were driven between his wrists, and ankle bones connecting him to the roughly hewn and splintered wooden cross. His blood and love poured out forgiveness for us all.

I still find myself humbled and in awe over Jesus.

Taking on my sin, my most wretched moments, my labels, my own destructive ways, and then He willingly paid their price putting them to death so that I could walk free.

Me...

Little old me.

And you too my friends.

And, here is the hard part...

He also died for the lady who was rude to you in the store the other day. The guy who cut you off in traffic, and even the bully in your class who pushed you into the mud while mocking you...

He died for the one who is in a relationship with someone of the same sex, and the guy who swooped in and broke up your marriage.

He died for the druggie mom who forgot to feed her kids because she was too stoned, and even the one who is sitting in a church pew today thinking they have it all together because they don't look like, “that guy”.

Amazingly, He died for each and everyone of us so that we could be...

FREE

Free through Him...

His life. His death. His resurrection.

All because He loved us. This Holy, Perfect, and Righteous God wants to spend eternity with us. We didn't ask him to pay this price. We definitely did not deserve this sacrifice, but He did it so that we could have the choice...

And this turns me into a bleary eyed mess.

How can I not begin to see others with God's eyes filtered through love, grace, and truth.

I find it amazing that if we choose to live our lives for Him, and love like Him then one day, His glorious light of truth will spread through our love.

Out of the crumbling walls, and heaps of rubble and wreckage... Through beautiful tears of repentance there springs forth a beautiful rebellion to combat the misery and lies of this world.

It rises up from the dirt birthed by this undeserved grace and pure enveloping love.

Once again Hope blooms.

There at the foot of the cross a new label is born from this sweet and blessed truth.

“I am LOVED.”

A new cornerstone for our foundation.

“I am Loved”

Do you know this my friends?

Say it out loud with me.

"I am Loved!"

Are you with me friends?

We are loved by an amazing and all powerful God and it is an everlasting and amazing love.

Isn't it beautiful?

So today, will you choose to see past the labels in others and listen to their story?

Love them right where they are at and live out love the way Jesus did?

Can we make this choice friends to do this right now this week, and the next, and the next, to be Jesus to others?

Will you join me?

Linking with these wonderful places, take a moment and visit them...  Inspire Me Mondays, Wednesdays Word, Thought Provoking Thursdays, Telling His Story, Faith Filled Friday, Soli Deo Gloria Party

Open Doors... When Love Came Down

I have been pondering open doors lately…

Open doors that are spilling forth their warm inviting glow to the world outside. Their beautiful light beckoning you to come one, come all. Doors that are open to new possibilities... Open to new friendships.

Open doors…

There are moments when our churches doors were open and they came.

Seeking help.  Seeking comfort. Seeking a ride, an ear to hear their story, heat from the cold, hope from despair, life from death…

All because of open doors.

Am I an open door? Am I approachable no matter the person?

I remember those nights when they have wandered in.

The wife whose husband left her with no money, and no home.

The teen with his scars bared for all to see and who had nowhere to go.

The young woman pregnant, stranded, and exhausted from walking.

They were each met with open doors.

They were each plunged into the warmth and love of Christ.

Are our doors open?

When Love came down. 

He chose to come as a helpless babe. He came poor and with nowhere to stay, and sadly the doors were all closed, but He was the HOPE for us all.

He is the Open Door for each and every one of us to reach the Lord of Lords. He was God’s very own hand outstretched to each of us.

The greatest gift resided in an unwanted package. 

Poor and humble, yet he was a threat to kingdoms on high and to the religious authorities of the day. 

They sought to extinguish His flame here on earth.

Our  Jesus, 

our Open Door, 

calls us to be open doors as well…

To the least of these…

Matthew 25:34-40

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 

For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat,

I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink,

I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

“Then the righteous will answer him,

 ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

 Let us be open doors without prejudice and without hindrance; with open arms letting the warm light of love spill forth welcoming them in.

This will require our time; our schedules to bend.  Our wallets will open, and our hearts may break, but there is great hope and beauty that can be found in relinquishing the “me” of our life’s focus and becoming the open door that Christ called us to be.

Hope is found there.

You may even meet Jesus in the eyes of those you minister too…

Will you join me each day in this prayer?

Lord you are amazing. You the creator of the Heavens and the earth; the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, who came down to dwell with us here. 

You did not come in your riches and power, but as a poor and helpless baby.

 You experienced the hurts and the needs of our world despite the fact that you would receive no thanks or great accolades while here, 

only horrific abuse and a brutal death sentence.

You willingly died and sacrificed yourself for me. You loved me even though I would willfully turn away from you. 

You are my open door to a life abundant and free. A Life ever-lasting with you. Help me to remember each day that you have given me your ministry.

 Help me to have your eyes to see those needing your open doors. 

Give me the love and compassion to be your hands and feet.

To speak your words of love and grace with my actions as well as with my words.

 Help me Lord to be an open door for you.

2 Corinthians 5:18-21

All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 

that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.

 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. 

We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

If you don't know where to start... Start with one.

She was drunk.

 I could see our breath like a mist in the cold winter’s night as we sat outside the church building. People passionately lifting up praises to the Lord echoed out of the churches open windows. My rear end was starting to move from sore to numb as the chill sank into my bones from sitting on the ground outside. She was anxiously glancing back and forth. She told me again she should not be here she was “drrrrunk”. She rolled her “R’s” as they do in the Afrikaans language. My heart went out to her.

We sat together there in the cold damp night, waiting for her to sober up or just gain the confidence to go inside the building. I was silently praying for her and she was feeling nervous about the church people’s reactions to her being drunk. I reassured her of our love for her. She repeated again that she should not be here, yet made no move to leave. 

She had followed me all the way up the winding dark streets from where she and her friends had been partying. All the while we kept chatting lightly as we walked.  She continually telling me that she should go back to the party, yet we continued walking together toward the church. God was propelling her. I smiled as I watched her keep pace next to me.

God had placed her on my heart from the first day she arrived at the park where our mission’s team was working.  I spotted her standing towards the back of the ever growing numbers of teenagers and children who were coming out to the site. With her arms crossed, her face cynical and smug, she would stand and observe us. If you got to close, she side stepped you. If you reached out to give her a friendly pat on the arm, she made fists and darted. She smirked when we spoke and made fun of my American accent, but God nudged me and said,

”This one, love and pray especially for this one.”

It’s always amazing how God can place a love inside of us for someone we do not yet know personally. Or when He places a love in our hearts for someone who does what they can to be rude or dodge us like the plague.

 We shared some of the horror stories from our lives on that chilly evening. She allowed me to share with her how God brought love and healing into mine. We prayed together. She still has an abundance of hardships to deal with in life, but I am confident of this.

God loves her. That she is beautiful and valued in God’s eyes whether or not she feels valued in her family. I pray for her protection and for God to guide her each week. I pray for healing for her heart and the strength to stand for what is true. I also pray that one day I can see her and give her a big hug again, I even long to hear her giggling as I try once again to pronounce her name correctly.

There are many of us who are in need of God’s love, forgiveness, grace and freedom, whether here in the States or halfway across the world. They are hiding behind tough exteriors, towering walls built from years of broken trust and open wounds, yet dying inside for someone who will care and be patient enough to love them out of from behind their walls.  

I have heard from quite a few people how they feel overwhelmed by the needs in our world. A friend of mine shared she did not know where to start and if she could truly make a difference.

This brings me to this week’s challenge. Consider this phrase,

“Do for one what you wish you could do for all.”  

Friends, if you relate to this then, could you please pray and ask for the Lord to help you to see the “one” in your life? Couldn’t we all start there? Start with just one person? Ask the lord to help you to see the ways you can encourage and bless them and then do it.  Maybe it is someone in your neighborhood, a co-worker, or a person you have met where you volunteer. Perhaps God is leading you to support a child through Compassion International or World Vision. I encourage you to take the first step today and ask the Lord, “Who is your one?”

Then remember the words Bob Goff so aptly coined, 

“Love Does”. 

1 Corinthians 13:1-3

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Matthew 22:37-40

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Later this week I will post links to websites where you can discover ways to get active with your faith. For those ready to jump in with both feet stay tuned. 

God can do the impossible through us if we are willing. Thinking out of our little box is next on the list. May the Lord bless you greatly friends.