The COVID curve is softening, and I am thankful. Although it peaked in many nearby communities it did not "devastate" Newnan as we prepared for. I am thankful for our leadership teams and management ... despite our shortcomings and limited resources we were well prepared and positioned for war. And COVERED in prayer. I don't know if God chose to spare Newnan because of fervent and effectual prayer. I like to believe that He did because many of my colleagues are struggling and have sacrificed much in this season. Last weekend we said good-bye to my friend Eric who left his husband Tim and foster son for a 13-week assignment to Coney Island, NY. They celebrated their one year anniversary apart this week. Another of my friends said they were operating at a 6:1 patient:nurse ratio in her ICU just last week and many patients had to be transferred out to other hospitals for safer staffing ratios. So it's taking its toll in other places and somehow Newnan has been allowed to exhale ... even if for just a few minutes.
But as we return to "life" I don't expect it will ever look the same. What is our new "norm"? COVID's been the big man on campus these last few months, but in reality that's not all we were fighting. Many of us were already facing giants .... challenging family relationships, chronic illnesses, financial strains, depression, etc. All of us already had a battle we were knee deep in when this hit. I lost a daughter right before we were ordered to shelter-in-place. She left to go live with her dad. I'm still adjusting. My other two children are still adjusting. I set the table for four all the time ... forgetting that we are now only three. I fix too many dinner plates and end up having to scrape one back into the respective pots and pans. I see the sadness in my other children's eyes that they try to be brave and hide from mom. I cry in my prayer closet and pray that God hears what only tears can say.
I've been fighting in faith for over a year on a battlefield too personal to share. Believing God for the impossible, believing the spoken Word of God over my life despite what I see and hear. Getting out of the way and letting God fight ... for salvation ... for me ... and for His glory. Experiencing beautiful and supernatural encounters with my Jesus that I never DREAMED of before. Letting Him recklessly pursue me and transform me.
This is a season of re-creation. When all of our recreation has been suspended and God is standing at the door saying "It's time for you to be still a while and visit with Me." He's not knocking to judge or destroy you. His intent is not for your harm. Trust me, I've wrestled that one out for quite a while and I'm now standing on the other side saying He's NOT here to harm you! He's NOT hear to hurt you! He's here to RE-CREATE you into the EXACT PERSON you were always intended to be. Maybe you lost your way ... or maybe you were traveling a parallel "moral" path but not walking in relationship with Jesus, then took a wrong turn. But regardless, deep down inside, you know that you still feel "lost." You still feel like you're jockeying for a position in life to fulfill you but after all these years still haven't found it yet. This is Jesus' invitation to sit and listen to Him .... let Him speak words of Life into you. Let Him reveal to you WHO you were always meant to be. Uncover those ugly places, the ones you can't even bare to look at, and let Him start to breathe healing over them. They will fester and rot without Him. I know and can speak with authority because I've been there, I've experienced His healing breath and touch. I've stopped beating the air with my fists at Him and now RUN to crawl up in His lap!! I've never known before the Jesus that I know now!! And I'm so desperate for you to know Him too!!
I spent a long time praying and crying in my car on the way back from returning my daughter to her dad's Easter Sunday night. The snotty, ugly kind. Begging God to show me something ... anything ... in the natural to confirm what I already know and have been claiming in the supernatural. After about 30 minutes back home my youngest daughter came into the kitchen and said "Mom, somebody's here." I walked outside to find no one. Whoever was there was gone. But what I DID find was a four-foot wooden cross standing up in my front yard. No note, no initials, no sign. It was just THERE. About an hour later when I went outside to check a few things and close the garage door .... it was GONE. Like it had never been there. GONE. I have no clue where it came from or where it went ... though my gut has an opinion. But I DO KNOW that I had just spent an hour snotting out ugly prayers for a sign in the natural .... and my GOD placed an unmistakeable wooden cross in my yard. I don't really need to know where it came from ... or why it was only there a hot minute ... I'll take it at face value .... THANK YOU FATHER. It was a physical sign of the promised resurrection I have long been claiming. What was dead is now alive. Beauty from ashes as I softly heard a voice call "Lazarus, come out!"
A beautiful commentary. You have a powerful voice.
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