After a 400 year pregnant pause, God spoke his fresh word in a baby's wail.
I hope your Christmas was full of God's personal word straight to your heart.
Blessings and Peace in your new year!
Mild He Lay His Glory By
Some days, I give myself headaches trying to see reality from a God point of view. I keep trying, though. I want to apprehend his thoughts, his emotions, his perspective. I want to be with him. Though I have never seen him, I miss him.
Father-God gave himself more than a headache, executing his plan to see reality from our point of view. “Mild he lay his glory by,” taking on corruptible flesh. In his son, he put himself behind a pair of human eyes. He thought and felt with a human brain. His body, like ours, depended on food and air. Jesus learned obedience by the things he suffered, just like we do.
Did he incarnate himself because he missed us? He didn’t come so close because he needed us. His existence and his value does not depend on us. Our reality depends on his reality; our value on his valuing.
And yet, he came. Not because he needs us. Because he wants us. Glory to God in the highest.
Father, Jesus, Spirit: May we want you with the wanting you have for us.
Food, Lies, and Heart Hunger
Stress. Internal or external demands that exceed our ability to manage without resorting to dysfunctional behaviors. Like gaining five pounds in the last few months while my husband and I have been walking through prostate cancer. We all have our favorite ways to comfort ourselves or get through the day when the days are intense.
I use food, often without self-awareness. Not until this week have I realized that’s why I’ve gained the weight. In retrospect, an obvious conclusion.
I have lots of company. Millions of Americans are overweight or obese. I used to be one of them. Maybe you’re struggling, too, especially during this season of temptation in America.
If not food, are you using alcohol or relationships or cigarettes when life gets overwhelming? Do you realize it’s a way to cope with emotional pain?
If it is food, it’s not just “I love food,” as I’ve heard some overweight people say. It’s deeper than that. Almost everyone loves food. How do we use food? What’s the fear, sadness, abandonment that feeds the “hunger” for food. What is that deeper hunger? Do we know? Are we willing to know?
Did our father leave when we were seven? Did our mother ridicule us in junior high? Did the other children reject us because our clothing wasn’t stylish? Such pain these rejections cause. If you resonate, I know you’re in a lot of pain.
Those events may live in the past but that pain still lives in our hearts. We can invite Jesus in to bring his truth, light, and healing. We can hear him speak his specific truth that counters the “truth” we learned at the hands of those who hurt us.
Our ability to manage stress is directly proportional to our heart grasp of Jesus’ truth.
Jesus, please give us power to face our deep pain, with you. Show us our next step. Thank you for all you’ve done already and for all you are doing and all you will do.