Tag Archives: hurt

Where does it hurt?

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My Grandma told me once about a time when my Uncle Pete was just a toddler, a time when he wouldn’t stop crying and fussing. She fed him, had already changed him, tried to comfort him, then put him to bed. He kept wailing and fussing. She even gave him a little spank because she thought he was being obstinate about going to bed. His cries persisted, his little cheeks all wet with tears. She decided to check his diaper again and maybe even give him a bath to calm him down. As she undressed him, she found that one little toe had gotten all bent up caught in the elastic of his footie pajamas and was all red. She confessed, almost teary-eyed, that she felt awful being upset with him when the whole time he was crying because his little toe was hurting and he didn’t know how to make it feel better.

As adults, we may not always cry, but there are times we get irritable, Continue reading →

To encourage you

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As a long-time lover of words, I was glad to get fresh revelation today regarding a favorite word: encourage.  There are other words more fun to actually say, like “bombastic” and “persnickety,” but I love what “encourage” means.

This word pondering came about because I am thinking about several friends who are facing hurt – some with weary hearts, some with bewilderment, some with anger, some with all of those.  My heart’s first impulse is a desire to encourage them.

encourage one anotherSince I was thinking of blogging about it, as it turns out I am doing right now, I looked the word up on dictionary.com and thesaurus.com.  The prefix of the word, the “en” part, causes the rest of the word to mean “to cause to be in a place, position, or state.”  Like the word “enthrone” means to put someone/something on a throne, etc. When we encourage someone we are urging them, hopefully causing them to stand in a place of courage.  The definition of “encourage” is to inspire with courage, spirit or confidence.

When we’re facing uncertainty, hurt, unwelcome change, or even a dream that has crashed to the floor and shattered, we have an opportunity to learn and grow.  However, that is not usually the first thing that comes to mind in difficulty, to say the least.  Sometimes we won’t move from where we stand or see something good God has for us unless what we are clenching in our little hands is taken away or falls apart.

In those times, we need courage to keep looking ahead, confidence to keep trusting God.  Our faint spirits need refreshing, heavy hearts need lifting.

You and I have the ability to help one another into a place of courage!

So, to my friends who are weighed down today, hurting or feeling low:

I want to remind you God sees you and your circumstance. He loves you and is near, whether you feel him there right now or not.

I want you to know you are not alone.  You matter, your feelings matter, and I’m here to listen if you need me to.

I want you to remember that God is working things out for good.  He’s ahead of you making the way for you.  He’s got plans and big dreams for you and they’re good.

If you don’t feel cheerful that’s okay, I can be quiet with you.  If you don’t feel like singing it’s alright, your song will come back or God will give you a new one.

I want you to keep in mind that although we get injured in this battle of life, the final outcome is already secured for us.  God wins.  So you win.

I want you to know, deep in your heart of hearts, that you are loved.

I pray God washes over you with his peace and light so that your eyes shine brightly again, heart full of hope.

I say and hope and pray all of this to encourage you.

Encourage each other and give each other strength…  I Thessalonians 5:11

When you go through deep waters,
    I will be with you.
When you go through rivers of difficulty,
    you will not drown.
When you walk through the fire of oppression,
    you will not be burned up;
    the flames will not consume you.  Isaiah 43:2

I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor ruling spirits, nothing now, nothing in the future, no powers, nothing above us, nothing below us, nor anything else in the whole world will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Romans 8:38-39

Not that I want to go there again…

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Last year was fraught with stress, pressure, hurt, questions, doubts, frustrations…you name it!  In fact the last few years for us were pretty stressful in one way or another and brought some disappointments here and there.  That’s the way it is for everyone, I know, it just seemed to be ultra concentrated for a while.  My heart was gasping for God like suffocating lungs for oxygen.  I had to hear His voice, tried to find Him day after day and be near Him.

In this new chapter of life we’ve just started many of those pressures have been relieved.  Life feels a little easier right now.  The only problem is, how do I stay so intimately connected to God like I was before?  It seems I searched for Him more fervently when I didn’t know where the resources to meet our needs in each day were coming from or when I felt so at a loss for solutions that I simply fell into Him in hope that He had them ready.

It’s not like I want to go back, no, no, no, Continue reading →

Root Canal Spirituality

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If you know me, you expect me to draw some lesson or ponderings from my root canal experience last week, some correlation with my faith.  But, of course!  Far be it for me to disappoint.

The whole reason for my root canal was a dead tooth with an abscessed root.  That is just plain nasty.  Infection set in and caused pain so I finally took action.  There was definitely a problem that needed fixing or I would keep hurting and possibly even face more serious problems.

I went to an expert, a man who’s gone to years of schooling and obviously had lots of practice already performing this endodontic feat of fantastic-ness.  He was quick, confident, and kind and I felt I could trust him right away.  He knew what he was talking about and what he was doing.

His assistant was just as sharp, right there with every tool he needed at the right time.  They worked together like clockwork, in tandem, to finish the job for me and get me all fixed up.

There were a few foibles, like one time the assistant accidentally dropped a tool and they had to get a clean one.  Then a particular tool kept malfunctioning and causing him to have to repeat small steps until he got a replacement that worked properly.

I was wishing I could watch the whole procedure from their point of view, Continue reading →

Jealous God

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I remember hearing years ago about Oprah’s turning away from mainline Christian faith into her confusing mixture of new age beliefs.  She was sitting in church and heard the preacher say something about God being a jealous God.  She thought to herself that if God was jealous of her, what kind of insecure god is that?  She ventured away from traditional views of God and into a nebulous tangle of self-deifying thinking.

I think she misunderstood.  I agree that the word jealous usually has negative connotations.  I was taught growing up that it’s not good to be jealous.  Someone should have told Oprah that God isn’t jealous of her as if He wants to be her, He is jealous of her attention.  He wants her heart and life to be centered on Him and not other things or people.

I caught a glimpse of what this means tonight.  I have these revelations in the oddest places in the strangest timing sometimes.  I was standing in a concert enjoying beautiful, awesome worship music with thousands of other enthusiastic people when I got clearer understanding about this.

I have some hurt over people in my life who have held me at arm’s length or refused my initiations at love or interaction.  When I see them react positively to others and not to me, I feel jealous.  I want that attention and love.  I felt God say that is how He has felt with me lately.

I have allowed myself to get caught up in busyness for a while now.  I’ve been restless and my prayer times have been short and kind of perfunctory.  I know that what I need and really want most is that nearness to God but I keep allowing other things take my attention and time away.  I don’t understand why I do it either and have felt very frustrated with myself.

Tonight I heard God tell me that He’s a jealous God and He wants my attention.  He doesn’t want me to hold Him at arm’s length, saying “later, God” or “I need to do this first” or “I want to give my attention to this instead.”

Can He forgive me for the fourteen-millionth time?  He said “Yes.”

Tonight at the concert Louie Giglio reminded us that extravagant worship happens when we are faced with God’s extravagant grace.  I fully agree.  When I remember my place and what God has done for me, His mercy and patience extended to me over and over again, the only reaction I can give with full sincerity is thankfulness and worship.

I prayed that the other relationship I long to have restored will be someday, but also that I will be thankful I have a jealous God who even notices I’m alive, much less wants me to spend time with Him and live in close relationship with Him.

Standing by while you hurt

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Someday you’ll understand how much I mean it when I say that when you’re happy, I’m really happy and when you hurt, I hurt.  It’s because I love you so much, more than I could ever make you understand.  But someday when you’re a mom and you have to stand by and watch your child learn through hurt, you’ll know what I mean.

I think of the time your daddy had to stand by and watch you get stitches in your lip.  You didn’t cry much but it wasn’t easy for him to do.  He knew it was for your good so he stood by.  He didn’t get in the way of the doctor or try to prevent it from happening.

I remember the heartbreaking time I had to hold you with both arms on my lap while you squirmed and screamed, as a nurse drew your blood for an important test.  Of course you didn’t understand since you were so young, but I had to because it was going to help you.

You know how it was when we used to plant flowers in front of the house and then water them really well.  Sometimes they were so small and fragile that the water pouring down seemed to flatten them.  However, the next day, Continue reading →

A quick look back, then we face the dawn

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I believe in pressing forward and in living in this day but once in a while it’s good to take a quick look back to see how far we’ve come and remember what we learned.  A friend of mine said today that looking toward this new year is like throwing out a fishing line, we wait and watch to see what we’ll reel in, not knowing, but hoping.  I joked that it’s probably good we can’t see all that we’re going to “reel in” this coming year and that I’m glad Jesus is there to help us if we have to pull in something really heavy or menacing.  Today I’ve been thinking some about the lessons I caught in 2010.  Some of them were whoppers: Continue reading →

Really, I’m fine

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It was not how I had planned the day would turn out, not in my weirdest dreams.  The girls and I made a spontaneous decision to go to Six Flags because we had a family pass and we could.  It was still summer and since John was working we headed out the door, just the four of us.  Of course, every good amusement park aficionado knows you should visit the bathroom before starting your adventure around the park so that’s what we did.  First thing through the gate we visited the nearest ladies’ room.  We were pumped.  Roller coasters and log rides, here we come!   If I remember correctly, Kimmi was 10, Kaitlin 8 and Krissy 6.  As I walked into the bathroom stall I closed the door by holding onto the top of the door and pulling it closed without noticing that there was a bar across the top of the doorway.  I smashed one of my fingers.  It hurt!  Wow, did it hurt.  I sat down and thought to myself, “I’ll be fine.  The pain will pass.  This is no big deal.”  I shook my hands, rubbed the sore finger, and then started getting light-headed.  Continue reading →

Not sure I wanna go there again

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She stood there for what seemed like an hour, hesitating, looking at the guy at the bottom of the ramp urging her to go for it, then back at me, then down at the skateboard she stood on perched on the edge.  I could tell her heart and mind were working at 100 mph trying to decide what to do.  She wanted to be a skater and had pretty much mastered the horizontal, flat ground skating. Now she was trying to learn to “drop in”: when the skater presses their front foot down on the board and rides down the steep curvy ramp. The idea is to stay on the skateboard of course and keep going once you’re on level ground.  She had attempted dropping in on the smaller ramp at least 15 times, each time wiping out and landing flat on her tailbone – the one place with no protective padding. Now she was perched on the big ramp but not so sure.  Continue reading →

I love you

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A husband and wife sat together at the kitchen table in awkward silence.  They had decided, having trouble getting along lately, that perhaps they should share with one another the frustrations they had with each other by each making a list.  After some quiet thought and pencil scratching it was time to share their complaints.  The husband read his wife’s first. A long list of his faults filled the page, and then another page. Continue reading →