Christ Is The Answer: Back to the source where all of our needs are met.

“I’m my own worst enemy.” a loved one said to me recently.

I was helping my mom set up a portal for her healthcare provider and we needed a password. She’d had a long day and is currently dealing with the grief of losing her husband of 69 years. Part of the stress for her is in catching up on her own health issues due to being his caregiver for many years.

Overwhelm.

We all face it. Deal with it on a daily basis.

I believe it has led many people to have depression, anxiety, hopelessness as well as a myriad of physical problems.

As a young mom I learned to “do” everything myself because my husband traveled extensively. And our parents lived far away. I also learned that not everyone in church had a heart for prayer when I shared my burdens. Instead my ‘found” support system, the church family, gossiped about me, criticized me, and judged me as a mom.

This was true in my marriage, my friendships and in my neighborhood.

It’s amazing that I didn’t quit. The only way I can describe those years of loneliness and separateness is that it drew me into a closeness with God that I had not had before. When we are desperate we draw close to him, don’t we?

Where do we go to find temporary relief that we need for the intense inner battles that we face? We can distract ourselves through blaming or criticizing others to make ourselves feel better. Or, we can find solace in other activities that seem healthy or beneficial.

Then we learn that there is only one true source to find wisdom, clarity, revelation and truth for our inner life. When we’re seated with Christ in heavenly places we know that he has the answer to every one of our problems and that with him we lack no good thing.

He is our joy in the struggle. Our comfort in sorrow. He is the best friend we could know. The sole source of our surrender. Ask him and we receive more than we could ever dream or imagine.

If you’re reading this blog, you love Jesus. But, more importantly, he loves you! In the middle of your worst day when words are spoken you wish you could take back. The mess you are living in is a small glitch in the journey you travel with the king. Eternity is our forever home where we will see fully what we can hardly grasp in this temporal body.

Breathe deep. Take a moment to remember whose you are and the world will seem less imposing. You will overcome yet another obstacle that seems impossible to navigate. Because through Christ you have victory over all things. And remember, when he guides you through this latest ‘overwhelm’ tell us how he helped you navigate the impossible and pass it on!

Book Review

Since my last book review I’ve been reading several cozy mysteries. They’re lots of fun and help to stir up my creativity. I also had the opportunity to go to an amazing writer’s conference which I’d been looking forward to. However, details emerged and I had to say no to an uplifting experience that also helps a writer write.

Well, as only God can do, I picked up a nonfiction book by Steve Laube that has encouraged me like no other writing book including Anne Lamott’s Bird By Bird and Stephen King’s On Writing: A Memoir Of The Craft. While both were excellent they lack the clarity that Laube’s book Sacred Margins: On The Spiritual Life Of A Writer brings to the table. I feel like every Christian writer should read this book to remind them of the reasons why they write.

I don’t know where I picked up the lie that imagination is evil. Maybe religion? So as a writer, myself, how more powerful are Steve Laube’s words, to me.

“Imagination, then, is not simply a natural human ability; it is a privileged gift. It is something to thank God for and to practice with gratitude. To be made in the image of a Creator means that creativity is woven into our being. There is fulfillment in imagining and making. We are invited to engage our creativity, not stifle it. Rather than distrust imagination, we exercise it under the lordship of Christ, knowing its origin and its purpose.”

Pick up his book and find treasures like this for yourself.

What are you reading this summer? I’d love to know.