blog ~ faith ~ family ~ heartlife
Dear Soul.
Gosh it’s weird addressing you like a separate thing.
Like a thing with it’s own life.
Like a thing I recognise is a part of me but not the whole of me which has a ‘mind’ of its own, which I guess you are… just like my body seems to do it’s own thing without agreement from the rest of me so much of the time.
It took a drought and a subsequent famine and a man sold by his brothers into slavery to bring Jacob and his 12 sons back together as a family of 70 into Egypt to shelter.
It took ten plagues and 400 years of descent into slavery to bring that family – now numbered millions – out.
It took disaster after disaster, warning after warning, disobedience after disobedience for people to cry out to God and recognise they’d turned away.
It took Jesus going to the cross to create freedom from the power and chains and sting of death for those who turn to Him.
It took millions of deaths and two giant wars after 19 centuries to return Jacobs family to their land.
Birth pains bring about birth.
God is at work throughout all these things.
He can be found.
I am hiding.
I’m in plain sight but hiding.
My eyes hold too much light.
They want to close and sleep and not think.
My mind is crashing with fragments of thought
– rolling and tipping and fixing and ruling.
I’m standing still but I’m running.
Conviction and condemnation can feel the same if conviction never gets acted on.
Conviction always has a way forwards. Condemnation keeps us weighted and chained.
Conviction is a touch from God, condemnation a hand around the ankle from hell.
Continue reading “Of whispers and ways”
The most terrifying teacher in my school life was a relief teacher in Grade Three. She was the antithesis of the most beloved, gentle, beautiful teacher of my entire school life – the main teacher also of Grade Three, who The Terrifying relieved for when The Beloved went on maternity leave.
Continue reading “Written tone of voice”
And Jesus said* unto me
“Heather-Love, it’s time to get out of the boat”
But Heather said unto Thee
Continue reading “A Boat by Other Name”
There is something about being with someone who understands. Someone who’s been through that same thing you have. There is a look that passes between two people who’ve walked the same thing – horrific to hilarious or anything in between – that no words can bring depth to. It is already known through and through.
Continue reading “The One Who Understands”
If you think you’d enjoy a five minute taste of paradise then this little video is for you. There is nothing but the ocean and some music. Being there was a 3 day hug from God and I hope this might be similar for you.
Continue reading “A beachside meditation”
Being on this little holiday has felt incredibly surreal. We arrived a bit early for check in so we went to hang out at a nearby park for a while after locating the house but as soon as I had seen it I had a flashback to a recurring dream I used to have as a child.
This dream was one I was always sad to wake from and which always felt unfinished. There was… is… more to it.
Continue reading “Surreal summer holiday”
I don’t know yet about the ‘greatest calling’ part of this – or how that’s meant to look – but it certainly has been my experience that God will use my most searing hurts as a connector to others in theirs… so if that’s my greatest calling it is fine with me. I LOVE that God does this… He won’t waste a single hurt if we’ll let Him do His thing…
2 Cor 1:3-5 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.