When God Calls Your Name

Matthew 6:25-26

²⁵ “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 

Easy right? Not so much. I suspect if it were easy, it wouldn’t have been included in the Sermon on the Mount.

Can I learn to live the moment in front of me and not think about the next …

hour
day
week
month
year

I can’t even let the next moment happen without

planning
and planning again
worrying
and worrying more
thinking
and rethinking

But as I examine the photo above, the birds are not looking around worried about danger, they’re not fighting to forage for food. It doesn’t appear as though they are feeding and also poised for flight eager for the next moment.

I know if I were to move toward them to get a closer look, they would quickly fly away. But not until that moment.

They are living in the now. With freedom. Freedom that God wants me to experience.

Enjoy the moment. It slips by.   Just   Like   That.

On the Journey, Jackie

We have a new sunroom addition with the perfect place for me to sit and find rest. (Just for the record, it needs snow this time of the year).

Just as last’s week post wasn’t your typical Christmas post, “Rest” is not the typical New Year’s post. But it is my word for the year. Last year it was “hope” and I posted about it on my quilting/sewing website.

During my fall sabbitical “quit striving” became my focus. I’ve had a few months to ponder that thought and consider what it should look like.

Did you know “rest” is a noun and not a verb?

Several definitions include:

A freedom from activity or labor
A state of motionless or inactivity
Peace of mind or spirit

That’s a lot of doing in my mind for a noun meant cease activity. I don’t rest well. I don’t do nothing well. If my body is not moving my mind is in overdrive.

So for me, rest means…

Rest from all my striving (how to manage my goals)
Rest from all the “to do’s” (of my own making)
Rest from myself (I’m my own worst enemy)

Matthew 11:28

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

Now I have a place to find rest.

I just need to give myself permission to do so.

Do you have a word for the year? How do you find rest?

Hoping to discover what rest means and practice it in my life this year. On the Journey. Jackie

A few years ago my daughter asked me what my favorite Christmas verse was. I hesitated in answering. Not because I didn’t know. But because it is not the typical Christmas verse.

Luke 2:19

But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.

I am a slow processor and I let ideas and thoughts simmer in my head before I come to conclusions.

What strikes me about this verse is that the shepherds have come with exciting news to share about her newborn child and her reaction… she ponders.

Kristen made this for me, most likely with the intent that I would display it at Christmas time. Instead it hangs over my nightstand so I can read it each night before going to bed.  It reminds me to take the thoughts I’ve had throughout the day and ponder them. Run them by God and let Him speak to me.

What do you do with the deep thoughts God gives you?

Tell everyone you know
Dismiss them
Question them

Or are you like Mary and ponder and

Consider their impact
Wonder what the next step is
Treasure what God is doing

So as we celebrate Christmas today, have you pondered the impact of the Christ child on  your life?

Christmas Blessings. Jackie

Happy Birthday Grace, though I know it’s a few days early.

Amazing, intense, full of life, determined, energetic and passionate Grace.

The force in which you fought for life in your early days in the NICU is now a force for us to be reckon with. 🙂

You put every ounce of your being into living. There is no in-between. A perfect example is how you love your brother. You can be screaming at the top of your lungs one minute clawing at him in anger or the next minute we will find you jumping up and down cheering him on. Fully, passionately, purposefully. No reservations. All in. We never wonder how you feel about something. It’s written on your face and in your body language. And then we hear you. 🙂

My prayer for you this year is to take that passion even at the young age of almost 7 and allow God to wrap His arms around you and mold that passion and love of life.

Colossians 3:23New International Version (NIV)

23 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters,